If it were not so, it would be funny ─ Voter ID faces U.S. voting practice

No matter what measures are taken, Americans do not bother to vote
By Carolyn Bennett 

We Americans are a fragmented country, a fragmented people, a wounded and weakened country – and this trend did not start this year or last year or even a mere decade ago.  

We are driven by greed, not just the greed of the bankers and mega religionists, the Catholics and Jews and Protestants, the celebrities or superstars; but the greed of those commonly called “ordinary” people, the “main streeters,” the 99 percenters, the non- “practicing” people who want what the rich and leisure class have.  

We are a people driven and fragmented by apathy and indifference and willfulness ignorance, by an anachronistic doctrine of States’ Rights, by corrupt, incompetent and generally very bad elected “leadership,” by dysfunctional systems including but not only the U.S. elections’ or electoral and related systems and processes.  

We are a lazy, consumerist people who believe we have a “right” to “get” (The American Dream?) whatever the heck we want whether it is at home or abroad. And this fraudulent way of living and being, this corrosive culture, this all-round BREAKDOWN, we justify, excuse or deflect with one after another distraction or manufactured crisis. 

The current babble focuses on voter identification papers, the latest “marriage-abortion-race-partisan-tribal” wedging exercise. How many years have we wasted on distraction, looking away while our tribe, “god’s people,” raped and burned and bombed women and children, the innocent and the defenseless, people who have done us no harm?

If it were not so, it would funny. And I can't tell  you how it breaks my heart to have to say what I'm saying.

Careless cunning

If Americans of any stripe really wanted to vote (and or if independent factions, organizations, individuals were interested in ensuring that all people vote), they would make it happen.

Today, it is not hard to vote or rally the vote. It was done at a time when demanding the right and exercising that right cost many Americans their lives, their land, their livelihood.

If people today wanted to vote or get out the vote and identification requirements stood in the way, they would form groups and launch a movement to ensure (it’s a lie that black Americans are by definition poor or poor people are by definition stupid or lacking in resourcefulness) that whoever needed identification papers (with photos) would darn well have them before election day.

 

The peg for this piece is of course the Voter ID babble.

The babble did not start this week but here’s some of the latest as reported online at Real Clear Politics among other sources.  One of the nation’s strictest voter identification laws was upheld this week by Pennsylvania’s state court and the ruling raised the decibel of attack/counter-attack distraction.  

Five states ─ Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Tennessee ─ will use strict voter identification laws in the coming November election, Real Clear Politics reported. “Two state judges have blocked Wisconsin’s law. Laws in Texas and South Carolina were denied pre-clearance by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Voting Rights Act and are awaiting action by a District of Columbia federal court. A Mississippi law is in the early stages of pre-clearance.” And rhetoric and pandering are flying on all sides.  

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder compares strict photo-ID laws to poll taxes once routinely used by Southern states to suppress the vote of African-Americans. [Race wedge]

Background note 

The poll tax [a uniform amount levied on each individual or ‘head’] extends in English history to the fourteenth century; its origin in American states and territories is associated with agrarian unrest of the 1880s and 1890s that culminated in the rise of the Populist Party in the West and the South.  

A low-income farmers’ party, the Populists, gave the Democratic Party the only serious competition it had experienced since the end of Reconstruction.  

The intensity of competition led both parties to bring blacks back into politics and to compete for their vote.  

Once the Populists had been defeated, the Democrats changed state constitutions or drafted new constitutions to include a variety of disfranchising devices.  

When payment of the poll tax was made a prerequisite to voting, people unable to afford the tax ─ e.g., impoverished blacks, poor whites ─ were denied voting rights.  

In twentieth century United States poll taxes of varying stipulations lingered in the Southern states.  

Some states abolished the tax after World War I; others retained it. 

The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, effective in 1964, declared poll taxes unconstitutional in federal elections. In 1966 the U.S. Supreme Court went beyond the Twenty-fourth Amendment in its ruling that, under the ‘equal protection’ clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, states of the United States could not levy a poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in state and local elections. [Britannica]

Fannie Lou Hamer nearly died
campaigning for right to vote

Constitution of the United States (excerpt)

Amendment XIV [1868] Section 1--All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Amendment [XIX] [1920] The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Amendment [XXIV] [1964] Section 1--The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. 

Amendment [XXVI] [1971] Section 1--The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Ruleville, Mississippi, birthplace
of Voting Rights activist
Fannie Lou Hamer

Too poor, too colored, too corrupt (?) 

New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, Real Clear Politics reports (Democracy Now also had a woman of color BCJ staffer on today), weighs in with the insight that “11 percent of voting-age citizens” living in U.S. states with photo-ID laws just cannot produce or acquire identification documents. [This is simply untrue] 

Defenders of strict voter-ID laws argue that, even when no fraud exists, identification documents are needed to prevent fraud. [The real fraud, the deep corruption is in the campaign and election systems, in the moneyed agents that buy and sell policy and political influence, and mass media that support these agents and system and deny alternative voices.] 

Pennsylvania officials had acknowledged, Real Clear Politics continued, that “they knew of no instance of voter impersonation.” An off-the-record “expert” reportedly admitted that both sides of the issue (an issue or nonissue that avoids and distracts from real issues) are making meritless “‘demagogic’ arguments …” with a single purpose: to “rally their political bases.”

Fannie Lou Hamer

Reality check: eligible voter practice

Americans do not vote.

For more than fifty years, eligible U.S. voters only three times have voted in percentages exceeding 60 percentage points: 60.8 percent in 1968; 61.9 percent in 1964; 63.1  percent in 1960.  In the 52-year period (25 elections reported in Infoplease data), 1960-2010, eligible U.S. voters have voted in percentages well under 50 percent: usually in the 30s (ten times); three times in the 40s percentage points; and nine times in the low and mid-50s percentage points.  

Early this year a Government Accountability Office (GAO) finding said─  

Many U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in federal elections do not do so.  

“In the 2008 general election,” GAO said, “about 62 percent of eligible citizens voted.  

Though federal law since 1845 has required federal elections to be held on Tuesday, some states have tried “to increase voter turnout by enhancing convenience, …implementing alternative voting methods such as in-person early voting (casting a ballot in person prior to Election Day without providing a reason) and no-excuse absentee voting (casting an absentee ballot, usually by mail, without providing a reason).”  

Thirty-five (35) U.S. states and the District of Columbia, for the 2010 general election, provided voters at least one alternative to casting their ballot on Election Day through in-person early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, or voting by mail.  

Thirty-three (33) states and the District of Columbia provided in-person early voting, 29 states and the District provided no-excuse absentee voting, and 2 states provided voting by mail to all or most voters.  

Of the 9 states and the District where GAO conducted interviews, all but 2 states provided voters the option of in-person early voting in the 2010 general election, and 5 states and the District offered both early voting and no-excuse absentee voting.  

Implementation and characteristics of in-person early voting varied among the 7 states and, in some cases, among the jurisdictions within a state. For example, 5 states and the District required local jurisdictions to include at least one Saturday, and 2 states allowed for some jurisdiction discretion to include weekend days. 

Though Left, Right and Center politics are committing an orgy of distraction on what is really another non issue as the framing of marriage and abortion for the past at least 30 years, GAO confirmed what most people outside a cave had already observed: that no matter what measures are taken to increase eligible voter turnout, U.S. eligible voters do not stir themselves to vote. 

I used to think weekend voting was a part of the answer to lax voter turnout. GAO found this not to be true. Though weekend elections in the United States have not been studied, GAO found that voter turnout is not strongly affected by alternative voting methods. Its “review of 24 studies found that, with the exception of vote by mail, each of the alternative voting methods was estimated to change turnout by no more than 4 percentage points.”

National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections:

1960–2010

Infoplease data 

Year	Voting-age population	Voter registration	Voter turnout	Turnout of voting-age population (percent)
2010**	235,809,266	NA	90,682,968	37.8%
2008*	231,229,580	NA	132,618,580*	56.8
2006	220,600,000	135,889,600	80,588,000	37.1
2004	221,256,931	174,800,000	122,294,978	55.3
2002	215,473,000	150,990,598	79,830,119	37.0
2000	205,815,000	156,421,311	105,586,274	51.3
1998	200,929,000	141,850,558	73,117,022	36.4
1996	196,511,000	146,211,960	96,456,345	49.1
1994	193,650,000	130,292,822	75,105,860	38.8
1992	189,529,000	133,821,178	104,405,155	55.1
1990	185,812,000	121,105,630	67,859,189	36.5
1988	182,778,000	126,379,628	91,594,693	50.1
1986	178,566,000	118,399,984	64,991,128	36.4
1984	174,466,000	124,150,614	92,652,680	53.1
1982	169,938,000	110,671,225	67,615,576	39.8
1980	164,597,000	113,043,734	86,515,221	52.6
1978	158,373,000	103,291,265	58,917,938	37.2
1976	152,309,190	105,037,986	81,555,789	53.6
1974	146,336,000	96,199,0201	55,943,834	38.2
1972	140,776,000	97,328,541	77,718,554	55.2
1970	124,498,000	82,496,7472	58,014,338	46.6
1968	120,328,186	81,658,180	73,211,875	60.8
1966	116,132,000	76,288,2833	56,188,046	48.4
1964	114,090,000	73,715,818	70,644,592	61.9
1962	112,423,000	65,393,7514	53,141,227	47.3
1960	109,159,000	64,833,0965	68,838,204	63.1

*Source 2008 election results: http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2008G.html.
**Source 2010 election results: http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.html

n.a. = not available. NOTE: Presidential election years are in boldface.
1. Registrations from Iowa not included.
2. Registrations from Iowa and Missouri not included.
3. Registrations from Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri., Nebraska, and Wyoming not included. District of Columbia did not have independent status.
4. Registrations from Alabama, Alaska, D.C., Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky., Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming not included.
5. Registrations from Ala., Alaska, D.C., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Miss., Mo., Nebr., New Mexico, N.C., N.D., Okla., S.D., Wis., and Wyo. not included.

Source: Federal Election Commission. Data drawn from Congressional Research Service reports, Election Data Services Inc., and State Election Offices

Information Please® Database, © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc All rights reserved
Read more: National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2010 — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html#ixzz23p3mJOjQ
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html

Sources and notes

“Voter ID: Less Than Meets the Eye” (Lou Cannon), August 17, 2012,

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/08/17/voter_id_less_than_meets_the_eye_115132.html

Real Clear Politics article cont’: 

Republican call for strict photo-ID laws to prevent fraud is a solution to a non-existent problem.  

Carnegie-Knight investigative reporting project News21 analyzed 2,068 alleged fraud cases in all 50 U.S. states since 2000 and found 10 cases of voter impersonation (about one for every 15 million prospective voters).  

The analysis found 491 cases of alleged absentee ballot fraud and 400 cases of alleged registration fraud. Existing voter-ID laws would affect none of these. 

So while states are preventing fraud that doesn’t exist, they may be ignoring the fraud that’s actually occurring.

About Real Clear Politics

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/media_kit/our_audience/

GAO 

Elections: Views on Implementing Federal Elections on a Weekend, GAO-12-69, January 12, 2012, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-69 

GAO’s analysis of early voter turnout data in the U.S. state of Maryland found that 1.5 percent of voters analyzed cast ballots on the weekend during the 2010 general election.

Constitution of the United States [excerpt]

Amendment XIV [1868] Section 1--All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2--Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,{14} and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 

Section 3--No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

Section 4--The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5--The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977): champion of voting rights, field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, outspoken advocate for civil rights in the United States

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