To the community,

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Moderator

Voting is a privilege, a right and a responsibility and should therefore NOT be taken lightly. Informed voting is part of that process. As someone who has been a registered voter since I became a Legal US citizen through immigration some 25 years ago and as a Military Veteran I take this privilege and right very serious. Over the years there have been times were I was not as informed about the candidates as I should have been and I am not proud to admit this. I have become better at it. I believe being informed about those who are on the ballot and the issues is just as important as casting a vote. This is why I find it irresponsible for those who push for same day voter registration and call the new laws voter disenfranchisement. Giving voters several weeks for early voting and 3 weeks before the election to register is plenty of time. The amount of advertisement that was spent on TV ads could have been spend to get those unregistered voters registered it that was such an issue and ID's could have been given to the low % of voters that don't have photo ID . There are no more excuses but to get educated on the issues and stop the propaganda and false information politics

A Republican who helped author some of the voter ID laws in Pennsylvania admitted in public that the purpose was to reduce the number of likely Democratic voters. The Republican's don't seem to be at all concerned about much more serious threats such as corruption of voting machines by either insiders or hackers.

Bush asked the Justice Department prosecutors to prosecute in person voter fraud vigorously, and when they didn't come up with any and even worse, prosecuted Republican Congressmen for corruption, Rove had them purged.

Oh how quickly people forget.

I am not discounting, much less dismissing the impact of disenfranchisement on these elections. But I believe the impact of abysmally low participation by people who actually could have voted dwarfed that of disenfranchisement.

This does not mean we can stop fighting this Neo-Jim-Crowism. We have to do whatever we can to get rid of the people who enacted these laws because they, both the legislators and the laws, are morally repugnant. But to not focus much more on the utter failure of Democratic candidates to inspire ANY confidence among young voters, minority voters, pink-collar voters - every group, in fact, that strategically-bankrupt GOTV campaigns thought were in the bag? That is really delusional.

This election had the lowest turnout of any in decades - about 37%. And not much higher for the "Blowout" party than for the "Blown Away" party. This means, among other things, that neither party has a credible base any more, and that the real winner was Who Gives a Rat's Ass, Not Me.

In short, disenfranchised Democratic voters were vastly outnumbered by turned-off Democratic voters. We need to recognize that Republicans win by not only promising to fight for what their expected voters want, but by following through once they are elected.

I don't care much for my own Representative, Chris Smith, as a Representative, since he bases his politics almost entirely on religious values antithetical to my own. But I respect Chris Smith, and he has won every election since 1980, because I know, and his constituents know, that he will fight to his last breath for those values.

How many Democrats can claim that kind of respect, even from those, like me, who vote against them in every election? I can only think of a few - Rush Holt (who is retiring), Kirsten Gillibrand ,George Miller, and Elizabeth Warren. These are the kind of better Democrats we need if we are to create fewer Republicans.

All the more reason for EVERY VOTE to count. If you count up all the voters that were turned away for ridiculous reasons, INCLUDING MYSELF, because they claimed my birthday was not written on my ballot envelope, but didn't notify me till the day before the election, even though they had my ballots a full 2 WEEKS prior .... this is going on all over the country. HOW MANY PEOPLE IS IT HAPPENING TO??? I could have gone in person. All my credentials are in order. I didn't want to risk having to stand for hours or have a "rigged" voting machine or whatever excuse they have for turning voters away. YET THEY STILL found a way to cancel out my ballot, because it sure as hell wasn't counted the night they called the election IN FAVOR OF THE REPUBLICAN idiot who is destroying my state.

http://www.vox.com/cards/vo...

To the community,

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Moderator

Voter ID laws aren't about 'ID' - they are about the FORM of ID allowed. Don't let the Republicans get away with claiming its just about having some form of ID.

These laws consistently target certain forms of ID that research shows college students, blacks, hispanics and the inner city poor are less likely to have. Guess what - Republicans pay big bucks for those studies to keep current on what forms of ID their voters have and the opposition does not. It's ALL about suppressing the vote of groups that vote against them.

Good idea. Let's do the work and tie studies to backing. Let's make it public, the kind of stuff you see all over facebook.

Every American citizen must have the equal opportunity to vote. We must ensure that no one's vote is disenfranchised while we protect our sovereignty as a Nation. However, in our concern not to disenfranchise a single voter, we cannot open the door to voter fraud. For if we allow anyone to vote more than one time, or anyone who is not a citizen to vote at all...we have given away the power of our own vote...it's not about feeling food about voting...it's about protecting our voting process and making sure our vote counts.

It's not going to work, guy.

2 cases of voter fraud in, like, ever. Don't remember the stats, but it's negligible. 2 voters out of millions. It's a non-issue. Laws with no grounds. Period. "Voter fraud" is not even worth talking about.

To The Community:

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Moderator

The voter ID laws do not stop the types of voter fraud that actually happen. The rare voter fraud cases we do have are double voting and absentee voting, both of which are not effected by the voter ID laws. So the idea that these laws are designed to help us have fair elections is simply a lie. Fair would be .. if you are a citizen and want to vote - you can .. .that is fair elections.

You really need to look up the percentage of voter fraud. It seriously is almost non-existent.

Republicans got you with this garbage hook, line, and sinker.

"Democrat" capitalized. And the stats are what they are. Argue with facts, it's what you do.

If there was any significant amount of in-person voter fraud, I'm thinking we would have caught some.

As of this morning, 198,902 active Virginia voters do not have a Virginia DMV-issued photo ID. It is important to note that this number only reflects voters without a Virginia DMV-issued photo ID. It does not account for the other forms of photo ID that these voters may have that would also be acceptable for voting purposes, including U.S. Passports; employer-issued photo IDs; student photo IDs from a college or university located in Virginia; photo ID cards issued by the United States, the Commonwealth of Virginia, or local Virginia government; and Virginia-issued voter photo ID cards.
In addition, Virginia voters who do not have an acceptable form of photo ID can get a free Virginia Voter Photo ID Card from any of the 133 local voter registration offices located in the Commonwealth or the Virginia Department of Elections. Obtaining a free Virginia Voter Photo ID Card is quick and easy, taking less than 10 minutes to complete. Voters can visit elections.virginia.gov and click on the “Voter Photo ID” button or call the Department of Elections at (800) 552-9745 to get more information.

North Carolina had a record number of voters vote in this election.
While I don't like the results, it's less than accurate to suggest low
voter turnout was the cause to Kay Hagan's loss, especially given that
high voter turn out usually favors democrats in North Carolina.

Thank you. The "racists," "war on women," and "disenfranchisement" memes are dying a much-needed death! What's telling here is that it's the media coming up with these explanations, not the politicians. It speaks volumes about the media's intentions, bias, and how far they've strayed from their jobs.

Historically the culturally conservative party has been more racist, more misogynistic and more disenfranchising than the culturally progressive party. And as cultural conservatives they tend to defend their culture as is. The mere mention that hundreds of thousands of voters won't be able to vote should make any unbiased person apprehensive about a law without a lot of evidence to the contrary. This combined with history is very suspicious.

By 'media' you mean the left leaning media, I'm sure the right leaning media agrees with you.

Well put.

Adam and Bill,

It is time for you to agree to disagree. Please move on without any further comment.

Moderator

Bill and Adam,

It is time for you to agree to disagree. Please move on without any further comment.

Moderator

How does having an ID = Citizenship?

No ID, No problem... so reads the Constitution if you need to know where I get MY facts from.

When laws go into effect with zero cases of voter fraud - there is another reason. If you really are saying that you think the Voter ID laws are on the book to make for "fair" elections, you should try some fact based reporting for a change.

Bingo. There's only one reason the GOP is the ONLY party putting forward these laws in ANY locality - red or blue. Because it keeps the people that would vote against the GOP from being able to do so.

We get it, but here's the rub, none of this matters as much as the LACK OF VOTERS who would have had NO trouble casting votes. Exactly how are we going to strike down unfair voting rules if the voters who can vote just opt to sit it out? And, let's face facts- Democrats outnumber Republicans by margins that would still make these restrictions moot.

For sure.

In Florida .. without the apathy of Broward and Dade counties having a 40% turnout .. Scott would have never won - even with all the suppression. It took both in this case.

True but apathy had nothing to do with this election. Quite the opposite.

I live in North Carolina and recently got a packet in the mail that allowed me to register for my absentee ballot, regardless of the reason I had for not being able to make it to a poling location on election day. There is a law that says they cannot deny you an absentee ballot. How can there still be people that didn't vote because they couldn't do it early or register on the same day? Maybe I'm not understanding the law mentioned above that says they have cut early voting days. It seems an absentee ballot is the perfect thing to counteract this sort of thing. I would just like an elaboration on the laws that are supposed to be restricting who can vote.

You're sent forms to pay your taxes every year, right? Why shouldn't everyone be sent voting ballots at home? Its almost like....they want your money....but don't want you to vote.....weird :)

They should be the standard. Gives everyone a chance to vote and no excuses - there's no reason not to do this, other than to control who votes.

everyone who thought enough to request it. Sorry, voting shouldn't be an afterthought.

"Among other changes, the law slashed seven early voting days..."
This quote, under the North Carolina heading, is what I am referring to.

I would think so. Each one contains two request forms, so that might be a small hitch if there are more than two eligible voters in the household. I got mine like 2-3 weeks ago. Actually, on the front it states explicitly, "All registered voters are eligible. No excuses needed!:" Meaning, like I mentioned before, you didn't need any reason, other than the fact you wanted an absentee ballot, to receive one.

Here's a picture of the part that you tore off from the actual registration bit:

http://img.photobucket.com/...

But isn't it the voter's responsibility to know if they're registered? When I moved back to North Carolina from Arizona back in 2013, I made sure to become registered when I got my NC license.

I know for sure I did not request an absentee ballot and was surprised as hell when they sent one. I thought, "Hey, this is awfully convenient." And on the chance that they are only sending them to people who are registered, isn't that how it should be anyway?

You can't physically go to a polling location and vote if you're not registered, so why would they send an absentee ballot. There still has to be some responsibility on the voter's end.

Dark money, voter suppression and disenfranchised voters.

Our government process and its social responsibility has been systematically bent to favor not the majority but a small group of rich powerful individuals. We as Americans generally do not vote against our self interest. Given the illusion of choice, the two parties represent this same plutocracy and we seem to buy into propaganda and disinformation. An estimated 23% of progressives voted and over 38% of conservatives voted. Progressives and conservatives stayed home - did not vote. Democrats failed a population of voters who bought the hope and change. What they got was more hope with very little change. Republicans blocked and obstructed government at every turn - the country, despite negative polling, just rewarded the republicans for those 'shut-down' tactics. This country remains a two party system governed by a rich minority over a poor majority.

While the republicans blocked and demonized a minimum wage increase for six years, they announced support to increase the minimum wage in many red states - just a day after the elections. These are the tactics of those we rewarded. While 50 million suffered they manipulated the vote. Don't expect this tokenism to continue. Regardless of political ideology of winners, we the people are the losers. The trend of obscene income inequality will continue. The greatest transference of working class wealth to the richest 1% will continue. 50 million in poverty will double again in 30 years time. The true numbers of unemployed, underpaid and uninsured will continue to be marginalized. Increasing numbers of voters will continue to be disenfranchised.

I dislike conspiracy theorists because they mostly allow the people to avoid responsibility for their actions. "I didn't vote because the system is rigged" "I didn't vote because it only feeds a corrupt system." etc. Look, most people don't vote because they are lazy and/or apathetic. The smaller the voting percentages, the greater the power of special interests. If everyone were politically active, our representatives would be our representatives and not the rich or the powerfuls.

The fact is that a bulk of the funding for both parties comes from the wealthy. I remember back in 1968, my first year of graduate school at KU, I went to the local Republican meeting and they were talking about how you got people to make contributions by giving those who gave bigger contributions more access to the politicians. I was naive and disgusted and left never to darken their meetings again. Some one realized why I was leaving and tried to explain it away before I left.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has ruled that money is speech, which means the rich get to speak and the rest of us are stuck listening to what they have to say.

After the moderate and liberal Republicans were purged from the party, I changed to Democrat. At least some Democrats are prepared to bite the hand that feeds them, unlike the Republicans.

I agree that campaign funding as it now exists is a cancer. I disagree that Democrats are the only ones willing to bite the hand that feeds them. What is the Tea Party but a bunch of hand biters? Where is their equivalent for the Democrats? They are much more ruthless in putting down such dissent. I thought the Occupy Movement might do so but where did that go?