5th Circuit grants 600,000 Texans the Right to Vote

[Cutlass]

Most European countries have an official ID card which every person must own (though usually not carry all the time).
For most Americans that's probably government overreach, but it clearly solves the voting rights problem

There are political groups on both the right and left who oppose a national ID card.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

And where you have to go to get them.

I made the perhaps bad assumption that if the country is issuing universal ID cards they can't be making them particularly hard to get. That could be wrong, of course. But it would definitely be intrusive government if they are requiring you to get one and then making you pay for it.

 

[Zkribbler]

,,,of they make you take a day off from work, travel halfway across the state to an office that is open just a few hours a week, and stand in a long line.

 

[sophie]

I made the perhaps bad assumption that if the country is issuing universal ID cards they can't be making them particularly hard to get. That could be wrong, of course. But it would definitely be intrusive government if they are requiring you to get one and then making you pay for it.

We have government-issued IDs you can get now. You have to go to the DMV for them. It's the US government. And it's a Republican-controlled congress. If we mandate people do a Thing, you can rest assured that Thing is going to be difficult for young people, poor people, and minorities to do.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

We have government-issued IDs you can get now. You have to go to the DMV for them. It's the US government. And it's a Republican-controlled congress. If we mandate people do a Thing, you can rest assured that Thing is going to be difficult for young people, poor people, and minorities to do.

The problem with "going to the DMV for it" isn't that it is particularly difficult to go to the DMV. At least as far as I know, but truthfully my interaction with DMVs is limited to three states so I'm not really an authority.

The problem there is that the cost is unreasonable unless you actually want to drive. Paying the price of dinner for a family to get a license to walk is ridiculous, and if you make it a license to vote it is a poll tax, plain and simple.

 

[sophie]

The problem with "going to the DMV for it" isn't that it is particularly difficult to go to the DMV. At least as far as I know, but truthfully my interaction with DMVs is limited to three states so I'm not really an authority.

The problem there is that the cost is unreasonable unless you actually want to drive. Paying the price of dinner for a family to get a license to walk is ridiculous, and if you make it a license to vote it is a poll tax, plain and simple.

When I was in college I once had to go to the DMV for a printout of my driving record for a new job I'd just gotten. The nearest DMV to my college was a 1-and-a-half-hour bus trip away. When I got there I was an hour waiting in line before I was helped. That's 4 hours roundtrip for a service that took literally 45 seconds to perform.

Where I currently live it's about an hourish bus trip to the nearest DMV each way.

 

[Takhisis]

I made the perhaps bad assumption that if the country is issuing universal ID cards they can't be making them particularly hard to get. That could be wrong, of course. But it would definitely be intrusive government if they are requiring you to get one and then making you pay for it.

,,,of they make you take a day off from work, travel halfway across the state to an office that is open just a few hours a week, and stand in a long line.

Here in Argentina it's quite fast, actually, and when it's mandatory (IIRC when you're 16, given that at that age you are allowed to vote) you can take the day off school/work. By law.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

When I was in college I once had to go to the DMV for a printout of my driving record for a new job I'd just gotten. The nearest DMV to my college was a 1-and-a-half-hour bus trip away. When I got there I was an hour waiting in line before I was helped. That's 4 hours roundtrip for a service that took literally 45 seconds to perform.

Where I currently live it's about an hourish bus trip to the nearest DMV each way.

GadZooks!

I live in LA County. There are DMV offices like there are McDonalds.

I apologize for my error.

 

[Dachs]

GadZooks!

I live in LA County. There are DMV offices like there are McDonalds.

I apologize for my error.

it is even worse in parts of Texas

 

[Zkribbler]

North Dakota

Federal judge blocks North Dakota’s voter-ID law, calling it unfair to Native Americans
“Voter fraud in North Dakota has been virtually non-existent,” the judge wrote in his decision, which follows rulings that blocked or loosened voting restrictions in four other states in recent days.

 

[Commodore]

Looks like precedent has been set. Since that law in Texas got struck down and set the legal precedent, all these laws are toppling down like dominoes.

 

[Zkribbler]

Looks like precedent has been set. Since that law in Texas got struck down and set the legal precedent, all these laws are toppling down like dominoes.

I am dissatisfied with this metaphor. With dominoes, the fall of each one knocks over its neighbor. AFAIK, none of these cases affected the other; they were all independent. It's more like they're falling like trees in the Brazilian rain forest.

 

[Takhisis]

Quite often, judges first reach a decision and then find a law to base it on.