Indiana Voter ID
So there's a law in Indiana that requires voters to present a photo ID when you vote... Just like you do when buying M-Rated games... Just like you do when buying alcoholic beverages... Just like you do when enrolling at college... Just like you do a lot of far less important things than voting for leaders of your country. Acceptable photo IDs for voting in Indiana comprise of the usual sources: driver's license, identification card, passport or military ID. The four major methods of identification that most American citizens over the age of 18 will obviously own. (Seriously... What 18 year old wouldn't have a driver's license, eh? Or even a learner's permit?)
Of course, there's always a tiny minority of people who whine and complain because they say it's too troublesome for people to present a photo ID when you vote. They say it's too much money, and that they don't have the time or resources to get a photo ID. They give all these symptoms, but never an example! Let me address each one of the concerns listed in the article:
"In crafting this law, the legislature failed to acknowledge that not all Indiana citizens have a printed birth certificate or the transportation to travel to various government agencies to gather documents or the funds to purchase the documents required to get the necessary documentation," said Joanne Evers, president of the state chapter of the League of Women Voters.
BZZT! Wrong, wrong, wrong! All completely wrong. You know, let's even assume that you can't drive for some reason, okay? You have no driver's license, so you need some form of identification and, for some reason known only between you and God, you have no printed birth certificate. Do you know how much it costs you to get a printed birth certificate? 10 bucks, man. 10 dollars... You could pass on that box of Mountain Dew, or that extra-large meal deal from Wendy's, or that blockbuster movie you just HAVE to see. Allow me to introduce you to the PDF you have to print to acquire your birth certificate. You might have to make a trip to the State department, but it looks like you can just send this in through the post office. Note that they ask for a photo identification, though. Hmm, looks like we're stuck...
Wrong again! You can acquire your birth certificate by presenting an identification card. (Otherwise known as a regular "photo ID".) Thankfully, the State allows you to acquire a photo ID without a birth certificate, that you can then use to GET your birth certificate and make things a whole heck of a lot easier in the future. Behold! The instructions for acquiring an identification card WITHOUT a birth certificate! Plenty of ways to get an accurate reading of your identification without a birth certificate. Do you want a complete list? Well, even if you said no, here's the link. It is so vastly comprehensive that I'm going to say that if you don't have any of these documents on hand, you are either incredibly short-sighted when you threw them away, or you're so young that you have no business voting in the first place, or you're an illegal immigrant and you, once again, have no business boting in the first place. You've got the major forms of ID... birth certificate and IDs and stuff... Then there's secondary documents: Student transcripts, student ID card, gun permits, insurance cards, employee photo IDs, military ID, marriage or divorce decrees... There's plenty of stuff to prove your identification.
So what you do now is lug your fat, lazy butt to the nearest Department of Motor Vehicles with enough documents to prove your identity. (Did I mention social security numbers?) Here's where the cry for transportation flares up. What if you can't get to this agency? Well, uhm... I'm going to assume that you manage to get into town to buy groceries somehow? Maybe someone drops them off for you, but you manage to get your food in one way or another, don't you. Well, chances are, that town you go to for food has a DMV of it's very own. In fact, I'm willing to bet on it. If you want to be sure, you can use this handy little page to find a DMV near you! Now, once you get there, and you wait in the famous DMV lines (because we all know how efficient the government is, and we all know how it could make a single exception for national social health care) you present your documents and a grand total of anywhere from 5 to 15 dollars. Better bring a 20, just to be sure...
But before you make a huge fuss about 20 dollars (uh oh, might have to stop eating out for one more meal), let me show you something! The IN.gov FAQs. Search for "identification cost" and you'll get a hit called "How do I get an identification card?" Click that and read the entire answer and you'll see this little gem:
To obtain a free identification card for voting purposes, you must visit a license branch with sufficient documentation and state that you need a free identification card for voting purposes.
Woah... Hmm. Guess that blows the cost factor completely out of the water, doesn't it? I would, however, encourage you to actually buy a photo ID, because then you can get a printed copy of your birth certificate, because, remember, that's what is causing the whole problem to begin with! Of course, we all know how much you all want the "quick fix", so you could always take the voter ID and get on with your life and then come back and complain when something throws you a curveball.
It's a bit complicated, but not at all difficult to get a form of primary ID that you can use to vote! Voting is the single most important thing you can do in this country, and some people (can you guess which party?) think it's their right to be able to waltz up to the ballot box without ANYONE making sure they're even an American citizen, drop in their vote and then, if they're feeling especially evil that day, go to the neighboring state and do the same thing. It has happened before... It's called Voter Fraud.
Now that I've given you a step by step method of acquiring an ID card for voting, let me postulate another question to the masses. The group who's suing the State for being unconstitutional in forcing photo IDs is the "League of Women Voters of Indiana". Okay? Big ol' organization, no doubt. Enough money to fund a lawsuit, eh? Now, why can't this organization help its members by doling out just enough money to help everyone get these "expensive" photo IDs? Why can't they provide insight and guidance for those who might not know exactly how to get a photo ID? Indiana's Secretary of State agrees:
"Those who continue to be concerned that a handful of voters will have trouble complying with the requirement should instead mirror our efforts to inform Hoosiers of this common-sense requirement and the myriad ways they can comply with it on Election Day."
Seriously... And when the whiners say something like this:
"The law hinders and discourages Indiana voters from participating in our representative government of checks and balances."
I can't help but snort at their inexhaustable laziness. This is nearing the end of June, so everyone has July, August, September, October and a tiny bit of November to get out there and get their photo IDs! This isn't rocket science, people... This is something you KNOW has to be done before you vote, so you need to take initiative and get that done before voting time comes! We all know the story of the nuns who showed up at an Indiana voting booth and were turned away because they didn't have photo IDs... All I can say is: "Yes, it would make me mad, too, but they have nobody to blame but themselves." It's not like Indiana up and suddenly said, the day before election, that we're going to have to provide photo IDs. We've have MONTHS to prepare for this and the only people who complain are those lazy liberals who kept putting off what they knew needed to be done. And their response? Sue the State.
Under the state's constitution, voters must be 18, residents of the state and U.S. citizens. An amendment added in the 1800s requires voters to register, but there is no requirement to show a photo ID, Celestino-Horseman said.
There was a comment on the article that amused me. They said that DUH, of course an amendment made in the 1800s wouldn't require a photo ID! Cameras were KIND OF SCARCE back then, wouldn't you agree? Not only that, but this is the entire basis of the unconstitutional bit of the lawsuit. I have to point out that while the constitution might specifically require registration, it does not specifically deny the idea of using photo IDs, so it's NOT unconstitutional. Being unconstitutional is when a law goes against what's written in a constitution, but since photo IDs aren't mentioned at all, there's nothing to be unconstitutional over. Get it? The Indiana Constitution (and the US Constitution) does not explicitly allow or deny the use of photo IDs in the use of voting, so it is perfectly safe and legal for lower level laws to define what we can and can't do in regard to using photo IDs in the voting process. Now, if the amendment (written before cameras were used) had said "don't use cameras", then that'd be another story entirely... But it doesn't.
Let's also not forget that the opposition to the Indiana voter ID laws paraded an elderly woman as an example of how the law would hurt people... When it turns out that she was registered to vote in two states. Oops. An accident, it seems, but this is EXACTLY what photo IDs prevent. Why is this bad? I don't think the opposition can ever give you a convincing argument that photo IDs for voting is a bad idea. They just don't like the inconvenience... I daresay some don't like the idea of getting caught voting twice.