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andrewjstone/voterid.txt

Created September 4, 2012 19:01
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Voter ID and disenfranchisement
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voterid.txt
In the US, IDs are not mandatory. Many citizens find the idea of mandatory ID to be privacy invading and un-american, a reminder of 'papers please' in Nazi Germany. However, driver's licenses are still required, and most people have them. These tend to act as defacto IDs. The only people that don't have them though, are senior citizens who don't drive and the poor. As these voters tend to lean toward the democratic party, every 2 years the republicans try to force them to purchase IDs. These ID's cost 35-60 dollars usually, and as that is cost prohibitive for people on public assistance and with fixed incomes, it makes it more likely for these poor and elderly citizens to just not vote instead. This is often seen as a tactic for voter disenfranchisement as the instances of actual voter fraud in the US are virtually nil.
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