Mike Luckovich for April 11, 2014

In a democracy everyone should be able to vote. Clearly gerrymandering, restriction of early voting, closing voting places that make it harder for the opposition to vote, creating complicated ID laws are all attempts to deny the vote to the opposition. Nobody should be allowed to do this.

What is this crap. What the libs call voter suppression; I call show us proof of ID.

The body of a woman was found in a Detroit home and apparently she had been there for 5 years. I believe it was found that she had voted in 3 of the last 5 elections.

I’m sure the trolls will say “Studies have shown that it almost never happens” and yet we hear about annecdotes like this all the time. How do they prove a negative? How do these studies prove it doesn’t happen?

I don’t want to prevent any citizen from voting. But I also don’t want any group to water down my vote with the votes of the morbid and the fictional.

It just doesn’t seem that hard for anyone to get a valid picture ID with their name and address on it. Most of us carry several i.e. Passport and Driver’s License.

Exactly!! How do “studies prove voter fraud never happens” when there is nothing in place to try to prevent voter fraud? Still waiting for the democRats & their liberal propaganda media to explain that one! You need an id to buy certain cold medicines & even spray paint, but not to vote? Really??? The reason liberals are so against it, is they know it will make it harder for them to fix elections. So lets just throw out there that one size fits all hat, “racism” & lets just keep pointing fingers & screaming racist to shut up the other side. No need to debate or present any logical reasoning when you can use the racist card! Well one study did find up to 35,000 cases of voter fraud in North Carolina.

@chris. What evidence? Studies aren’t evidence. And annecdotes actually are.

ha, ha, ha….. he quoted the ‘washington times’. like they report facts or something…. lmfao

In 2012 more than one million more votes were cast for Democrat Congressional candidates than Republican yet we have a republican majority in the House. The Republicans are working hard to preserve that undemocratic advantage. If you believe in “one man, one vote” than voter ID should only be a minor part of what you support.

I use anecdotal because I only had read 1 source and not pursued it further. Those studies that have surfaced saying that voter fraud isn’t happening purport to prove the negative; which is impossible.

I keep reading about it happening and yet studies arise from liberal institutions claiming it’s a myth. I want someone to discredit those anecdotes before I’m willing to accept their studies.

In the mean time – I still assert that it isn’t hard to get a picture ID. Those of you who would discredit my concerns don’t seem to offer any proof that it is hard. You only want to stop Republicans from making it a requirement. Why? Are you afraid your party can’t get elected without voter fraud?

I don’t think it is unreaasonable to be concerned that my vote will get watered down by well meaning political hacks (like the case in Indiana) that would vote multiple times. We need to be sure that each individual only votes once and is a citizen. Picture ID seems pretty reasonable.

I use anecdotal because I only had read 1 source and not pursued it further. Those studies that have surfaced saying that voter fraud isn’t happening purport to prove the negative; which is impossible.

I keep reading about it happening and yet studies arise from liberal institutions claiming it’s a myth. I want someone to discredit those anecdotes before I’m willing to accept their studies.

In the mean time – I still assert that it isn’t hard to get a picture ID. Those of you who would discredit my concerns don’t seem to offer any proof that it is hard. You only want to stop Republicans from making it a requirement. Why? Are you afraid your party can’t get elected without voter fraud?

I don’t think it is unreaasonable to be concerned that my vote will get watered down by well meaning political hacks (like the case in Indiana) that would vote multiple times. We need to be sure that each individual only votes once and is a citizen. Picture ID seems pretty reasonable.

No, I know we are not winner take all system. That wasn’t reflected in my post. My request is that for all those who push for voter ID laws to prevent abuse of our system also push for an end to gerrymandering and stop the new push by some to have congressional districts individually vote for our President. These practices are a disservice to voters, majority and minority.

@ODon – On that point you and I agree. I’m all for simply drawn districts. I just don’t know how to stop it (by either party).

As to having districts vote – On that point I am very much on the side of doing away with the Electoral College. I’m in Illinois and in the first Obama election – Every county in Illinois except Cook (and the one in which East Saint Louis inhabits) were Red (Voted for Mcain) and yet all our Electoral votes went to Mr. Obama.

Again – I want one man/woman one vote and the Electoral College warps that.

yes mikey dead people have the right to vote

@1opinion – I believe you are confusing Urban legend with annecdote. They can be the same thing but often are not. I also remember the urban legends about the lightbulb that would last for ever but GE was suppressing that too.

But that is different then reading in the Newspaper about individuals going to jail for voter fraud and then being told that it isn’t happening.

Where you and I probably disagree is on how big a problem we think it is. I think the fact that we read about it at all suggests there is a much larger problem that we have not yet detected. You seem content to assume that those few cases that occur are the price of doing business.

But that STILL doesn’t explain why progressives, in particular, are so dead set against a simple picture ID to prove you are a citizen qualified to vote. I’ll even agree that they should be free (I don’t want a poll tax). But as soon as the issue is raised you and your friends attack the people calling for it as partisan.

So I challenge you again – Why is it so onerous to expect a citizen to present proof of their legitimacy as a voter? It would go a long way to alleviate my (and many of my friends’) concerns about disenfranchisement and it wouldn’t cost the voter anything. I can produce 2 forms of picture ID at a moments notice that carry my address, phone number.

Oh, and also Democrats. Mustn’t forget them guys…

Oh, and also Democrats. Mustn’t forget them guys…

Many good comments here. I mostly agree with Mephistopheles. I don’t see voter fraud, but many people won’t.

I agree that gerrymandering should be stopped. In Virginia we elected a tremendous state delegate who accomplished all sorts of valuable things in her first term: wildly successful train routes to DC, securing federal funds to help localities meet clean water standards for the first time in decades, funding for a science and technology center that has brought bright, educated minds to the area with their accompanying salaries. This was all the more remarkable because she was a rookie and belonged to the minority party. She worked hard to change the law to allow redistricting to be carried out independently of the legislature. Could never get the votes.

Of course, she lost her next election, primarily because she had a “D” next to her name. Her successor has been as worthwhile as a cobweb; he is a doctor who doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with our health care system. ’Nuff said.

I also agree there is no reason for the Electoral College. One person one vote. Personally, I would eliminate all presidential primaries, or schedule them for the same day. I am incensed that my opinion carries no weight at all: no one cares about Virginia, but the people in New Hampshire get to have private conversations with almost any candidate they choose to speak to. Their opinions are no more valuable than mine,

I have no objection to voter ID. It does get political when a legislator describes the result of a voter-eligibility law by saying: “This will guarantee that Pennsylvania will vote for Romney.” When I hear words like these, even a law that seems benign becomes way suspicious, and I believe that is why many democrats are leery of laws that restrict access to voting.

Moderation is the key. As long as the ID is not impossible to get (i.e., only available for 1/2 hour on the second Tuesday of the week, and only if it falls on February 29), I don’t see a problem. But I grew up in the South and saw all sorts of voter suppression tactics which were legal at the time. I see the Supreme Court saying that racism is over, so the Justice Dept. doesn’t need to oversee election structures, and I wonder how far some people want to push the issue.

So I will “trust, but verify”. You aren’t sliding down the slippery slope until the moment you start to slide. All talk about potential is just that: talk.

Your point?

@Sirhc – Can you explain that further. What is the wrong ID?

The Republicans in congress are doing their job. Their intention is to keep everything just as it is, unless they can manage to return to the “good old days” of the 19th century, before there was a middle class and when only the landed gentry were voters. And, they have a great strategy for accomplishing this. 1. Disenfranchise everyone you possibly can, unless they are dependable Republican voters.2. Produce ads and media emphasis which emphasizes those politicians who are corrupt and incompetent. Paint all Democrats with the same slime. Lacking sufficient actual slime, simply make some up. This undermines the people’s trust in their government and makes them feel like helpless pawns, so they tune out the whole process and accept the status quo. 3. Support the “job creators”, who are the recipients of a huge portion of the GNP, although that GNP was produced by working people, who are receiving less benefit from it every day. This gives them the money to accomplish the other two goals, and leaves everyone except the “job creators” with increasingly less money to mount a counter campaign. So, this is the way we are going lose the middle class and become a country inhabited only by the very rich 1%, and a 99% who are too busy working two jobs to survive to notice.

Good try, but unfortunately for you and your head in the sand philosophy concerning the democrats, THEY are the ones that have story after story popping up about voter fraud. Here are just a couple that popped into my head, but there are many, many more. How do you think that Harry Reid and Al Franken got elected? Reid owned the county voting registrar (a DEMOCRAT) who prevented any voter fraud complaints and subsequent investigations from going anywhere and Franken who suddenly found 312 ballots (surprise, they were from people who shouldn’t have been voting if voter ID were on the books). Why do you think voter ID is so necessary? It’s not so the republicans can’t perpetrate voter fraud, it’s so DEMOCRATS can’t perpetrate voter fraud, why in the world is it the DEMOCRATS that fight so hard against voter fraud? It’s not the republicans, ONLY the democrats. You might want to pull your head out of the sand if you believe this line of BS that luckovich drew because you are just as stupid as he is. BTW, I am purposefully not using the word ignorant…that means you just don’t know something, stupid means you ignore the facts!

And what is your excuse for closing all the restrooms in the Miami polling places — after already creating such artificial scarcity that people have to wait ten to twelve hours in line before they can vote? That has nothing to do with proving who anyone is.

Really getting paid off to vote and you say the editorial is BS propaganda. “Fraudulent voting” is by and large a manufactured problem of the right with little evidence. With so few “Americans” not fulfilling their duty to vote we should be encouraging all Americans to vote not suppressing the vote. Apparently civic duty is not enough so maybe your idea of paying people to vote might work :-)

so painter 3 % fraud vote is ok with you?

Aah, another on the cycle of liberal cartoonists.