Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Voter Mismatches? Ahhh, Screw It!

So say the three retired judges who blocked any action that would have required voters to show ID at the polls if they hadn't corrected any mismatched information.

Names? Sure:

Michael Brennan, William Eich and Gordon Myse

Three others thought it would be a good idea to check ID's.

Tom Cane, Victor Manian and Gerald Nichol

Pretty clear which of the above like maintaining the integrity of the vote in Wisconsin.

Also pretty clear which of the above don't really give a rip about vote-integrity in Wisconsin:

Michael Brennan, William Eich and Gordon Myse

Remember those names, folks.

Michael Brennan, William Eich and Gordon Myse

The "Who Gives a Rip" judges.

7 comments:

Scot1and said...

While I'm sure requiring voters to show IDs would be a well-intentioned requirement. It would also be unconstitutional.

There is a constitutional right to vote. Restrictions such as poll taxes and civics tests have been held to be unconstitutional. In Wisconsin IDs cost $24 bucks. Requiring an individual to pay that amount before they are permitted to vote strikes me as analagous to a poll tax and will likely be held unconstitutional.

The alternative is to provide free ID cards. But that would surely cause our already high taxes to increase.

Dad29 said...

You are daft.

The Legislature has passed laws requiring picture ID (WI Drivers' License or State ID) but Doyle mindful of his obligation to deliver the State to the D party, has vetoed same.

This is not a "poll tax," nor a "civics test."

Just provide a picture ID.

But hey. Hire a competent attorney and sue!

Dad29 said...

By the way, when you hire the competent attorney, he'll mention the State of Indiana's SCOTUS-approved Picture ID law.

Scot1and said...

Perhaps the same competent lawyer would tell me that in Georgia v. Billups, 406 F. Supp. 2d 1326, a federal court held that mandatory photo ID law, where the state charged a fee, unconstitutional because it constituted a poll tax.

The Indiana case, which I presume you are referring to is Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 128 S.Ct. 1610. Although I'm surely daft, that case proves my point:

The Supreme Court, held that Indiana's law was constitutional because "the photo identification cards issued by Indiana's BMV are also free." However, the Supreme Court noted that had a fee been charged the voter ID law would have been unconstitutional.

As I stated earlier, "The alternative is to provide free ID cards. But that would surely cause our already high taxes to increase."

So that gives us a choice between issuing free ID cards to every homeless bum, thus raising our taxes; or having no photo ID law. Given those choices I opt for lower taxes.

Dad29 said...

The Wisconsin proposal provided free ID cards, IIRC.

Just a matter of taking another 2-3% from the annual school-supports.

Scot1and said...

great, we will all get a tax increase to prevent a dozen felons from voting.

Prosqtor said...

Maybe instead of buying a bunch of land (only to sell it later, at a loss, to contributors to Doyle), we could spend the money to allow for free IDs.

And then we could head toward eliminating voter fraud.

Or cut some of the UW Women's Studies or Sociology departments.