Voter photo id laws.

INTEGRITY This one of those debates that just needs to center around common sense. Common sense tells us that the voting process should have some integrity. We should be able to trust that the official elected to office was elected by a majority and not by a small group of people engaging in fraud. None of us wants our vote canceled out by somebody who voted twice. Election fraud even if supposedly rare now is something that needs to remain rare and with the citizens of America (and probably several other countries), becoming more divided over politics are also becoming more incentivized to win by unethical practices. After all you are keeping a scary monster out of office in the mind of the average person. It is my contention that it is better to take a proactive approach to preventing election fraud. The last thing we want is some Manchurian candidate who gets into office by the extreme effort of a small group of people. We saw something similar to that in DDO"s last election (not counting the "emergency" election that elected Ore-el). A small group of people controlled the outcome of that election and it probably wasn"t fair. The dangers the Democratic process faces, needs to be anticipated instead of responded to. By the time we know to respond to a stolen election, it is probably too late. I"m not really alone in this either. This is basically a common sense position that most people agree with. According to one study 75% of voters agree with voter ID laws. If we were to put voter ID laws to a vote, the people would decide it is a good idea. THE MYTH OF VOTER SUPPRESSION I do have legitimate studies that show that voter ID laws in fact do not suppress votes, but before I reveal those, I want to explain the voting process so the voters can understand why this is the case. Being turned away at the polls, does not indicate being turned away from voting. What happens to a voter if they show up without a photo ID in states with voter ID laws is that they receive what is known as a provisional ballot. They vote on this ballot and a lot of times, no further effort is needed on the voter"s part. Other times the voter may receive a letter in the mail just to check a few boxes and return to insure they have their vote counted, and that they actually cast the vote. [1] I also want to take the time to note that reasonable accommodations are made to help people vote who would be overly affected by voter ID laws. Accommodations allowed by most states: =607;1."Have religious objections to being photographed (Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin) =607;2.Are indigent (Indiana, Tennessee) =607;3."Have a reasonable impediment" to getting an ID (South Carolina) =607;4.Do not have an ID as a result of a recent natural disaster (Texas) =607;5.People who are victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking and have a "confidential listing" (Wisconsin)" [1] The voter ID laws do not affect absentee ballots or mailed ballots.[1] So if an individual is extremely burdened to get an ID, they can just mail a form. I get these forms in the mail every election cycle. It is actually probably even way more convenient just to check a few boxes, lick the envelope and shove this stuff into a mailbox According to on highly respected news source who used available data from Georgia and Indiana where these laws have been in place for some time: "(Reuters) - Democratic claims that a large number of Americans could be prevented from voting because of photo identification laws are probably overstated based on evidence from Georgia and Indiana, the two states where the laws have been in place for multiple elections, Reuters found." [2] These states have also done a lot to reduce the fear of critics. For example they have made sure to hand out free ID"s and I see no reason why other states could not replicate that, since it has been so successful. VOTER FRAUD Voter fraud does happen and since ID isn"t required in many places it is extremely hard to detect. Some other types of voter fraud mentioned in an article by USA Today include "Critics of voter ID laws also fail to note they are designed not just to stop voter impersonation but also multiple voting, non-citizen voting, people voting in the wrong precinct, out-of-state voting and voting in the names of fictitious people." Voter fraud is hard to detect because of the secret nature of the ballot on top of the fact no ID is needed to vote. The highly touted news 21 study has a ton of flaws and is basically trash. This study was done by several college students and funded by very liberal sponsors. There was definitely a conflict of interest which is not enough to discredit the study on its own. The news 21 study was extremely amateur and not useful in any way. " Essentially, they politely asked for public officials to send them all of their examples they had of election fraud."[5] According to their own criticisms of the study; "[I]t is possible that some jurisdictions which did respond failed to include some cases. Despite the huge News21 public-records request effort, the team received no useful responses from several states. Hundreds of officials responded with short notes " some handwritten, even coffee-stained " saying they had no cases of fraud. Some jurisdictions insisted that their computer system lacked the capability to search for election fraud cases. Dozens of jurisdictions flatly refused the requests. For nearly all the data News21 received, there would be some vital piece of information that had been requested specifically but that was missing. [T]here are cases in the database that contain so little detail that they cannot be properly categorized as one kind of fraud or another." [5] CONCLUSION I appreciate Four Trouble allowing me to debate this with him. Next round I plan on contesting just about every piece of evidence my opponent has brought forward. Election fraud is real, no legitimate study has been done to know exactly how significant it is but we should proceed with caution and do everything in our power to protect the integrity of our election process. If people think their votes are being erased by those who engage in fraud they will become disenfranchised Thank you. sources 1.http://www.ncsl.org... 2.http://www.reuters.com... 3.http://www.usnews.com... 4.http://www.usatoday.com... 5.http://www.conservativeblog.org...