And the larger world keeps on ticking....

[grinninfoole]

I have just received this email. I don't wish to clutter my journal with political matters, nor do I wish to impose upon my readers, but I believe that the import of this matter is something most Americans can agree upon, and that we should all do what we can to preserve the things that matter. Now more than ever.

TO: ACLU Action Network Members
FR: Jared Feuer, Internet Organizer
DT: February 20, 2002

With the Senate poised to finally vote on election reform legislation, provisions have been
included that turn a well-intentioned bill into a potential source of futher discrimination
and inequality.

These new provisions include a photo ID requirment for first time voters. Putting this
condition on the right to vote would shut out a disproportionate number of racial and ethnic
minority voters, much in the way that literacy tests and poll taxes did in the past.

This requirement would also have a chilling effect on voter participation among young people,
as most of America's 1.5 million undergraduates do not have a photo ID that displays a local
address.

Take Action! The right to vote is fundamental, and it must not be contingent on a person's
ability to produce one type of identification! You can learn more about this issue and send
a FREE FAX to your Members of Congress from our action alert at:

http://www.aclu.org/action/photo107.html

Comments

Political Monkey Business

[filthyassistant.livejournal.com]

      Considering the fact that the republican party had volunteered to correct absentee ballots that had been filled out incorectly (an obvious conflict of interest), I wouldn't be at all surprised if the two major parties sent identification to all of their registered members, forcing all of us non-affiliated citizens to go to wherever we need to get to (if we can even get there via public transport) and pay whatever they want us to pay in order to get one of these new IDs. I can't wait.

Re: Political Monkey Business

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Well said.

Re:

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

For me, the main point is that by requiring first time voters (and only first time voters), to purchase a special ID card, one does little to discourage voter fraud, but a great deal to keep poor Americans, who don't vote that much anyway, from getting involved because they might not be able to get the ID. If so, it's yet another way of keeping people voiceless, and keeping their concerns invisible.