Monday, October 13, 2014

Maneuvering Persists After Courts Block New Voter Conditions

This article discusses the disagreement over voter ID in certain states. The republicans are supporting laws that would require all voters to present a photo ID, eliminate same-day registration, and eliminate extended voting periods during which black and Hispanic communities are known to vote. There are even laws that would restrict the type of photo ID required to vote. The Democrats, on the other hand, claim that these laws are targeting racial groups.

14 comments:

  1. My views on this topic are stated in the last article about the issue. I'm happy the new voter requirements were blocked. I don't feel that the reasoning for the new requirements were to prevent certain races from voting, but voter fraud is not a major issue, so I feel there is no reason to enforce these requirements. They would be so sudden, throwing off many voters, and possibly altering the outcome of elections.

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  2. I don't think states should be able to impose voter restriction laws so close to elections. In my opinion, these laws are a way for politicians to sway the outcome of an election. Since voter fraud is not a major issue, these laws are only suppressing voters that cannot meet the requirements of these laws.

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  3. I definitely agree with Jamie. It just seems so sudden and random. I feel as if there are underlying motives to enacting new voter restrictions so close to elections and I feel as if it would throw off many voters and possibly cause people to stop voting all together. Sometimes when something just gets to be such a hassle, more people will choose to stop doing it instead of deal with all the restrictions and blocks put on them.

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  4. The reason that the republicans, especially in the south, want voter ID laws is because they dont want Illegal immigrants(who are not citizens) to vote. Illegal immigrants are, for obvious reasons, strongly democrat. So blocking their votes effectively blocks almost any democrats from being elected in the southwest.

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  5. Going off of what Jaime and Carolanne said, voter fraud just is not a big threat to the country. I truly believe that the politicians were doing this out of their own benefit, to give them that one bit of edge over their opponent. But that does not mean that the voting rights of the minorities should be in jeopardy, Racial discrimination is a bigger problem in this country than voter fraud. And to have all this happen so close to the election is just too much.

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  6. This is kind of a random topic. I thought when one voted, it was require to have an ID. Voter fraud is not something we talk about everyday and it's strange that this is happening so close for the next election. I feel like it's just a way for some Republican candidates to infuriate the Democrats. I do not think this is such a huge issue but I agree with Katie that racial discrimination is a problem we should be focusing on more.

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  7. Definitely agree with everyone else. There is very little attention paid to voter fraud recently. However, there is heavy emphasis on racial discrimination. (Ferguson protests for example) Whether or not voter fraud is a highly critical issue, it shouldn't be the main priority. It's not so important that solutions should be made so close to the elections.

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  8. The whole idea of this to me was mind-boggling. Setting these stricter guidelines to vote is crazy at any time. But at this time of the year it,goes with out question that the people making this a law are taking away the right to vote of those who don't support them. The politicians feel incredibly threatened and they look so cowardly by doing this. Since they are scared to lose they such try and change the rules. To me it shows a broken system that this could even potentially happen

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  9. I agree with much of the sentiment everyone else is expressing. These laws were passed by Republican politicians to benefit their own party by depressing turnout of groups that tend to vote for Democrats. I find it disappointing that one of our nation's major political parties is manufacturing voter fraud as an issue with the intention of using it to justify restricting people's ability to vote. They should be doing the opposite, making it easier for people to vote, but at the moment they are more concerned with their own political ambitions than what is good for our democracy.

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  10. I said it last week and I will say it again; I am all for imposing stricter voting regulations to reduce voter fraud. However, these restrictions are coming way to close to the elections and is quite obviously an attempt by Republicans to restrict voting rights. The Supreme Court Justices have said essentially the same things about the matter. What troubles me most is that this article mentioned the Voting Rights Act. This was an issue during the times of segregation. Why is it still an issue? The fact that the some American politicians are still okay with infringing on the right of others to vote and have a say in our government is embarassing.

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  11. meant to say "and *are quite obviously an attempt..." Sorry about that

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  12. Similar to what i said last week, I know that many people are saying that voter fraud "is not that big of a problem in America." But since when did the government go back to only making policies about current issues like in the early 1900's, rather than making policies about what they think could potentially become a problem in the future. True, this is likely an attempt at restricting voting rights like others said, and these new policies are coming at an extremely inconvenient time. But I'm just saying that just because a policy seems to benefit one political body over the other, doesn't mean that this was the driving force behind the policies enactment.

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    1. behind the policy's enactment.

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  13. The past two articles posted on voter fraud prompted me to read up on the voting fraud issue. According to a study conducted by a district Judge named Lynn Adelman from Wisconsin, pretty much no voter impersonation occurs. In one of the additional articles I read, it was noted that 36% of Republicans think voter fraud is an issue while only 7% of Democrats agree. After having read up a little more on the issue I think requiring voter ID so close to an election is highly unnecessary. If Republicans want to implement voter reform, they should wait until after oncoming elections so as not to confuse voters. The emergence of this issue as elections are right around the corner seems a little fishy to me. While I would not have an issue with implementing some reform well in advance of an election, I completely disagree with trying to push it through right before an election. I do not think the Supreme Court should pass judgment on the issue until the soon to occur elections have passed.

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