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Aug
15
Missouri tops in voter suppression
August 15, 2006 |
Salon has named Missouri one of its Shameful Six states doing the most to suppress voting among minorities, the poor, and elderly. They cite the just-passed voter ID law that is poised to striked 200,000 Missourians off of the voter rolls - folks that are either black or poor. It’s a move designed to insulate Governor Blunt from folks upset about his enormous Medicaid cuts and to give Senator Talent some extra protection is his vulnerable race for re-election.
Comments
6 Comments so far
This is just the latest step in a dance that was created over two hundred years ago. When it all began, only land-owning men could vote and they had votes for all of their dependants and 3/5 of their slaves. As the voting laws have liberalized there have always been attempts to step back on the belief that we’ve gone too far. In recent years the democrats have benefited from the votes of the dead and the rounding up of half comatose drunks and degenerates with the promise of booze or cash for votes.
My personal belief is that voters should be required to be net contributors to the system in order to have their ballot count. We’ll never go that far as the total number of net contributors is smaller than the number of net beneficiaries but perhaps confirming that voters 1) are citizens 2) are actually who they say they are, and 3) haven’t already voted that day puts a bit of balance back into the equation.
I actually realized that I couldn’t vote in this last election because though I’ve lived in Missouri for a while I forgot to ever get my driver’s license replaced — I still have my Kansas license. So, no valid Missouri photo ID.
Scooter, you have voted in the August election if you were registerd. The photo ID law doesn’t take effect until this coming November general election.
Really?!? I thought it took place right away.
Oh well — there were only a few items I was planning to vote on and they all turned out the way I wanted anyway.
All this crying about voter fraud is a red herring. I spoke to the Secretary of State’s office a few weeks ago and learned that just for their costs, the tax payers of Missouri will be out $3.5 million. I can’t even estimate what this will cost local election boards. This from the tax sensitive Republicans? The Iraqis accomplished the same thing this law tries to accomplish by dipping voters’ index fingers in purple ink. I’ll bet that solution would cost a whole lot less money than the new voter ID law.
I have a question for Northeast Guy. If only contributors get to vote, then when does someone cease to be a contributor? If I’m downsized because my employer was bought out, do I not get to vote while I’m out of work. If I win the lottery and never need to work again, do not get to work? If I retire, do I not get to vote? If I do not go to work for two months becuase of back surgery, do I not get to vote while I’m out?
Joe Medley: First of all, republicans are not tax sensitive when it comes to their issues. For example, you will never see a republican suggest lowering taxes for the purpose of lowering the defense budget (even when the rest of the world knows that we play offense not defense).
In answer to your questions: when…cease to be a contributor? when your entire tax burden becomes less than you receive in benefits. If I’m downsized…? You continue to be taxed (property, sales, personal property, auto registration, etc. But if you take more out of the system at this point than you give, you lose your vote. Lottery winners? Sales tax, property tax, personal property tax, auto registrations, etc. minus social security, ssi, etc. You get the idea.
Retirement is one of the big issues though. In defense of retirees, they were sold a big lie when told that their fica tax was some sort of contribution. SCOTUS has ruled more than once that social security is a pay-as-you-go system and retirees are not entitled to their contributions. In other words, social security is nothing but inter-generational welfare. Had these folks been encouraged to save rather than count on the government for their retirement things might be different.
Of course this hasn’t happened and one of the results has been that older folks have become the most well represented demographic at the polls. And they tend to vote for anything that lines their pockets. Of course, once forced to become a dependent of the state it is only natural to vote this way.
The power to tax turns us all into slaves of the state in the long run.