no its not there is no constitutional right to vote in the united states.


"In its 2000 ruling, Alexander v Mineta, the [U.S. Supreme] Court ... affirmed the district court's interpretation that our Constitution 'does not protect the right of all citizens to vote, but rather the right of all qualified citizens to vote.' And it's state legislatures that wield the power to decide who is 'qualified.'

As a result, voting is not a right, but a privilege granted or withheld at the discretion of local and state governments.... the U.S. is one of just 11 nations among 120 or so constitutional democracies that fail to guarantee a right to vote in their constitutions."

leo I recommend you find a new crackpot blog to read

This is a good example of why Alexander Hamilton objected to the creation of the Bill of Rights in Federalist No. 84:

It looks like Hamilton was more visionary than his contemporaries gave him credit for. If it's not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, sure enough some dumbass (not you leo, I mean in general) is eventually going to come along and point out this fact and say, "Hey! It's not in the Constitution so it's not protected arglebargle!" The same goes for the "right to privacy," fwiw.

My Con Law professor heavily criticized this decision in class one day, saying that it completely ignores the 9th Amendment and is one of the worst decisions of the Rehnquist court.

Until 2004, every time I voted I showed up at my designated polling place and gave them my name and address. They looked me up in their book, had me sign, and handed me a ballot. It worked pretty well as far as I could tell. If someone had shown up before me and pretended to be me and voted for me (it never happened) then we would obviously have a problem and an investigation would be warranted.

yes ash but there are cases of overlap where somebody could vote as a dead person. heck we still get mail and bills for my grandmother and she has been dead for over 2 years. it would not slow down the process any.

So in answer to my question, you feel providing your name and address is an acceptable means of proving you are who you say you are, right?

This is no different than the satirical answer I gave from above with the exception of the person's address, which is easily obtainable. I'm just surprised you feel your position doesn't fall in my statement of "extremely little to no verification."

Um, the verification part comes at the time I am issued a voter registration card.

Do you honestly think that there are roving gangs of vote-stealers out there hiding in the bushes waiting for the polls to open so they can run in and vote as someone else? If so, please provide evidence of this. I have already asked for someone to provide specific examples of voter fraud that would have been prevented by picture ID, can you provide any?

K so there are folks out there combing the obituaries in search of people they can pretend to be when the next election rolls around?

Also, if dead people are still on the voter rolls then that is a problem with the supervisor of elections, not the general public.

This is a solution in search of a problem, nothing more.

yes ash you say voter reg card. but in nc we dont have to have our voter card to vote. there is not a whole lot of verification going on when you register.

Do you lock your door when you leave your house? Why would you if it had never been robbed before now?

Because I have seen evidence of others being robbed.

We don't have to have it here in FL either. I wasn't even asked for mine, just my picture ID.

Thats not how it is done though. You get as many non-people, dead people ect. on the registration rolls, and then you can backfill the votes you need.
It's where organization really counts.

I have always lived in northwest IN. Gary, Hammond, East Chicago are historically really bad with fraud. Gary always is the last place in the state to report results. They come up with some unbeleivable turnout % when they need too.

Bob Beckel told a story on the five about how a Gary mayor produced enough votes for his guy, after the rest of the state reported and the number of needed votes was determined.

I can see how some of you don't think that voter fraud is an issue if you live somewhere where fraud doesn't happen much, if at all. If you happened to live somewhere where voter fraud is the standard, your opinion might change.

well here we dont have to show anything ever just tell them who you are and your address.

can you not see how that could be an issue?

Are you asking me whether it's possible for someone to a) find out my full legal name, b) find out where I live, c) find out what my polling place is and then d) show up at the polls (hopefully BEFORE I get there) and then vote in my stead? My answer to that question would be Yes.

If you are asking me if I am concerned that someone would risk prison time and to have a permanent felony on their criminal record just to do this, I would have to say No.

Wait -- are you saying there hasn't been any voter fraud up to this point?

JFC read the thread. Process something. Just once.

He can walk to the voting booth where they have a name on his list and they check him off. Everything else you're talking about is much much harder for someone like this.

Well, we can look in the local paper for documented cases of burglaries. We also know that there have been extensive investigations to look for vote fraud. They came up with fewer than 10 cases nationally over the span of a decade. That is a trivial and acceptable amount of cases compared to the thousands or tens of thousands who would not be able to vote due to ID laws.

As is common in these kinds of threads - conservatives getting utterly destroyed by logic, empirical evidence and history - but nonetheless plowing ahead completely undeterred.

In before "Getting an ID is a snap, I got one. I don't see what the big deal is."

And the cycle of life continues.

Well, the Bush administration's investigation uncovered 9 whole acts.

Do you have a cite to it occurring? Bob Beckel reading chain emails on Fox News doesn't count.

thousands or tens of thousands who would not be able to vote due to ID laws

^^^^^^^^^^ that is just ridiculous. i dont know why you think its so hard to get an id.
your rural alabama argument was obsurd.

Republicans spending millions through action committees to stop 9 cases of fraud over a decade. They must be some dumb bunnies, since we know this isn't going to be hard for anyone to get an ID.

Read the thread, until then I'm done with you. You obviously aren't even trying.

Not everyone is a middle class white boy from the suburbs. Not everyone lives like you. Maybe try traveling the country a bit.

It's pretty common for poor people in Peoria, Illinois where I used to live to not have photo IDs, especially since they mostly don't own cars.