Voter ID laws in Wisconsin are *gasp* disenfranchising eligible black voters

Wisconsin Is Systematically Failing to Provide the Photo IDs Required to Vote in November
New recordings from the DMV show how the state is continuing to disenfranchise black voters.


Excerpt:

I, for one, am completely shocked that Voter ID laws are keeping poor and minority voters from voting, exactly as predicted.

Other states are having this problem too. Apparently three months warning (in one state's case) is just not long enough to get the required proof/documentation/etc. It seems names aren't exact matches on different documents (marriage licenses, driver's licenses, social security cards, etc.) and potential voters might have to jump through typical "government hoops" to get it straightened out - thus you cannot wait until the "last minute" and it very well might take a couple of months to get it taken care of. It's harder for minorities to make the phone calls and send the e-mails and physically travel in person if necessary to take care of the paperwork. We will see more of this as we get closer to the election. BTW can people in jail (local county lockup) vote with an absentee ballot? I know somebody who will be behind bars until mid-November and might be disappointed.

I don't get why this is such an issue for you guys. Up here you show your id, vote and then go have a Molson. The whole thing is pretty chill.

Because Americans are incredibly dishonest and have zero respect for any system and will "get over" and cheat every chance they get would be my guess. In theory we are a nation of laws - but in reality we are a nation of law breakers.

Many people of color in this country, particularly in the South (big surprise) do not have a photo ID. Many have never owned a car, therefore no driver’s license. Prior to the Civil Rights movement, many black women were barred from giving birth in “whites only” hospitals – they gave birth at home or, in instances of complications, sought the help of a veterinarian (cue Sokar-like comments from @gturner and @Dinner here). The midwives who assisted at home births were very often illiterate or simply lacked the proper forms or authority to issue birth certificates.

No birth certificate, no photo ID.

Guess which party thinks this is fair and balanced?

If they don't have ID's how can they keep buying malt liquor?

I'm required to have ID for all sorts of things, so I have no problem with requiring an ID to vote. However, the state should be prompt in issuing them.

Honestly, though, I don't see how you could function without ID in modern life.

You are right - if this was fifty years ago. Sorry I live in The South - unless you are older than dirt (or already six feet under it) you have some type of photo ID or can find somebody who can help you get one. It's not like there is a whole village of 80 year olds fifty miles out in the country with no access to civilization, with not one of them able to drive. A sure see a shitload of early model Buicks on the road with the average driver age around 65.

And right there you ruined it.

Wait until the next riot and steal it....duh!
What.....too soon?

Molson Canadian is pretty good. Labatt's & Moosehead not so much.

Right on cue.

So then what's your explanation for why so many people of color in Wisconsin don't have a photo ID?

It should surprise nobody that these laws are accomplishing their intended purpose.

But it fails in predictable ways, so that's a pretty big problem.

Yet many do so just fine. You and I may lead existences that involve all sorts of conveniences facilitated by having a photo ID, but many lead different lives from ours. Read Garamet's explanation for why some do not have photo IDs, and remember that not everybody lives in a major urban center with an advanced economy. It starts to be a bit easier to understand how some people who don't travel in our circles might in fact have no real reason for obtaining a photo ID, nor the ability to get one for that matter.

I spent some time growing up in a small, rural town in the Ozarks--pretty poor, but not dirt poor--and, even 30 years ago, people there had IDs and such. Rural America is not that isolated or removed from urban life, not then and certainly not now. If someone today is so poor as to lack ID--and to not need it for all sorts of common everyday things--then I doubt they'll be anywhere near a polling place or be aware an election is going on anyway.

I agree the state lagging on issuing IDs is a problem.

So if minorities don't have drivers licenses etc why isn't there a national ID card program or something similar? Or is there already such a thing in place?

This is America we are talking about not a 3rd world country. Everyone should have ID and easy access to get it

I think @garamet literally thinks it's 1964 right now.

Believe it or not, a national ID is probably illegal under the 10th amendment.

It may well be, but driver's licenses and social security cards are de facto national ID.

Sure, they definitely function in that manner. But the question is why doesn't the federal government take over granting such IDs because the states are too incompetent. In answer, the Feds may not have that authority.

It's never stopped them before. Someone would wave their hands and mutter "interstate commerce" or "fight terrorism" and the courts would say "Sounds jim-dandy to us!"

I think you need to stop personalizing this and try proving your point with facts. You remember what those are, don't you?

You're allowed to disregard Dayton or Farmboy as any arbiter of normalcy. Tell us what your vast experience as an international merchant has taught you about the Deep South.

Take your time.

That is such a God damn lie that I really hope hell is real so you can burn in it.

You need can ID for just about everything in today's world.

Get into government building?
Get into hospital?
Get into airplane?
Get into cruise ship?
Get a job?
Get any type of government program?
Buy beer?
Buy guns?
Register children in a school?
Go to a political rally?

And that's just a partial list.

It is an outrageous lie to claim that minorities don't have identification.

Oh, she's a liar, but then I'm sure you can explain how it is that over 600,000 Texas voters don't have a compliant ID. And then you can explain the flaws in the Brennan Center study that found 11% of American adults do not have a government issued photo ID. Just because your own life can't make sense of not having one does not mean there are no people who don't have one.

Here's a good article about the challenges these laws present to large numbers of people:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amph...0f0-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html?0p19G=e

So you're saying the report quoted in the OP and all of the statistics on this issue -- 100% of them -- all lie in the same way?

Incoherent you are, limited to How [you think] Things Work for the middle class in Your Own State without any global consideration of the other 49, and grammatically challenged as well.

Keep it up!

He lives in a state that will eventually leave him ankle-deep in the Atlantic but believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by China and liberals.

There's actually quite a few elderly people who distrust doctors in part because of Tuskegee experiments done on black soldiers in the Army. And also the whole home birth thing, since blacks couldn't use the same hospitals.

As for buying beer, if you live in such a backwoods area to survive day to day without ID, chances are good that everyone knows your name in the one bar in town, so ID probably not an issue for that.

This isn't everyone; I don't expect many black folks in Oakland have problems getting to DMV when that area has some of the best bus systems in the country. But in Bumfuck, AL? I can believe garamet's scenario.

The "Well it's their fault for not getting things together enough to already have the documents they need" stance also ignores the fact that this type of thing isn't new. There is an indisputable historic and recent record of some areas trying to use these types of rules to disenfranchise groups of voters so when that is observed happening they don't get benefit of the doubt on their motivations for introducing said rules.