remember these guys? they died so you can vote, just like jesus.
Ever wonder what’s it like to live a life so driven by greed, power and self-interest that you’d openly cheat in the hopes that people will be so complaisant as to not even try to fight it? Enter the Orwellian weasel-fuckers that call themselves the GOP. Republicans enacting desperate restrictive election laws proves one thing: the party has reached a spoken, internal consensus that it must cheat in order to win.
The very idea that even Republicans would stoop to such embarrassing machinations, that make a mockery of our democracy, that devalue the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion and the right to assemble, is so perverse it is hard to wrap my head around. What could be more un-American than the desire to exclude as many people and silence as many voices as possible?
The history of a place is often dictated by the fortune or misfortune of its location. Such it is that Philadelphia, the birthplace of the U.S. Constitution and American democracy has the most heinous voter ID laws in the country. ShitforBrains corporate stooge, Governor Tom Corbett signed these voter ID requirements into law, requirements that are pathologically insane.
Step1
To obtain a Pennsylvania Photo Identification card, an individual needs to visit a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Driver License Center with a completed Application for an Initial Photo Identification Card; form DL-54A, and the following:
Social Security Card AND one of the following:
- Certificate of U.S. CitizenshipCertificate of Naturalization
- Valid U.S. Passport
- *Birth Certificate with a RAISED SEAL
BUT THAT’S NOT IT! IN ADDITION, YOU MUST HAVE:
- Two proofs of **residency such as lease agreements, current utility bills, mortgage documents, W-2 form, tax records.They are willing to waive the $13.50 fee for acquiring an Identification Card for individuals completing the Oath/ Affirmation Voter ID form. BUT all identification documentation is still required to obtain an Identification Card!
- *If they do not have a birth certificate with a “raised seal” and are a PA native; and do not have one of the acceptable forms of photo identification to vote, they must visit the PennDOT driver license center, and:
- Sign an oath/affirmation that they do not have an acceptable form of ID for voting purposes and the photo ID is needed for voting purposes;
- Show a Social Security card and two proofs of residence, such as a deed, lease, tax bill, or utility bill;
- Fill out a DL-54A form requesting a non-driver photo ID and;
- Complete the HD01564F (Request for Certification of Birth Record for Voter ID Purposes Only) form
- Voters going to the polls without a photo ID, including indigent voters unable to pay necessary fees to get an ID, will be allowed to cast “provisional” ballots – and will “have six days to provide all those forms of ID they couldn’t drum up before the election your photo ID to have your ballot count”. SIX DAYS. Why don’t all polling places just include a Wipeout-style obstacle course just to get in the goddamn door? Governor shitface says:
“I am signing this bill because it protects a sacred principle, one shared by every citizen of this nation. That principle is: one person, one vote. It sets a simple and clear standard to protect the integrity of our elections.”
Sure, PennDOT will get those 8,000,000 people IDs by November, I mean, look at how nice and paved all our roads are in PA. A proposal, Governor ShitforBrains: in return for A universal ID, why not require universal voting, Australia-style? If one person, one vote is a “sacred” principle, the GOP should have no problem with all persons (and no, Mitt, not corporations) actually voting. If we truly want “more democracy”, that’s the way to go, right? We might vote in some civics classes after that.
George Weigel says:
“If you can’t buy beer at the ballpark without valid ID, or withdraw money from your savings account without valid ID, or get on a plane without valid ID, or pick up a medical prescription without a valid ID, you shouldn’t be admitted to a voting booth without valid ID. Enough Chicago-graveyard-voting jokes are enough.”
I want to kick a baby every time I hear this argument. False analogies have no place in argumentation. Voting is completely unlike buying beer, using the ATM, boarding a plane, or picking up my Cymbalta at the Walgreens, and Mr. Weigel knows it, so stop the fear mongering and false analogies. None of those things are constitutionally guaranteed and none of them are a critical basis of our republic. If I couldn’t get my anti depressants tomorrow, I would go bananas but the nation wouldn’t crumble.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 as amended is specific in its intent. No amount of disenfranchisement is allowed. NONE. No laws can be enacted that in any way result in the loss of or an impediment to the right to vote. States can enact voter ID laws – thanks to the Supreme Court in 2008 – because of “voter fraud”, which Pennsylvania didn’t even try to prove, because, you know, literally all voter fraud is perpetrated by Republican officials and they know it.
The emerging voter narrative among middle class voters is one of never approving tax increases if the government can’t prove that they are spending the money these voters approve us. And those things don’t include financing anything that might benefit in anyway any member of the illegal population, or any program that smacks of “handouts”. Jesus, Republicans must look at the changing demographics in this country and go ape-shit. They are proactively counterbalancing what will eventually become a democratic leaning majority, a time-honored strategy.
In the Fuckeye State, heavily Democratic cities like Cleveland and Columbus suddenly have new early voting hours limitations, because even if you can’t hide behind the military to temporarily disenfranchise Democrats, there are other ways. Reeling from the 2008 election results, Ohio Republicans drastically curtailed the early voting period from thirty-five to eleven days, with no voting on the Sunday before the election. How bad could access to polls be? How about – sorry working stiffs! – 8 am until til 5 pm on weekdays, with NO VOTING at night or during the weekend? Democrats fought this, but, alas, Ohio GOP Secretary of State Jon Husted stuck his fat nose in on behalf of his fellow Republicans. In explaining his decision to deny expanded early voting hours in heavily Democratic counties, he said:
‘I cannot create unequal access from one county board to another, and I must also keep in mind resources available to each county”.
I mean, that makes sense, right? You wouldn’t want unequal access across the state. Wait, what? In solidly Republican counties like Warren and Butler, GOP election commissioners have approved expanded early voting hours on nights and weekends? So, you’re saying that the counties where Ohio Republicans are denying expanded early voting are those that strongly backed Barack Obama in 2008, while most of the counties where the extra hours will stand heavily supported John McCain? And yet LeBron James is loathed for wanting to get the fuck out of Ohio? Perhaps in response, Democrats should open polling places in 24 hour 7-11’s and Wawa’s. “These Krimpets, and a vote for Obama for me, please”. Or, let’s tell Republicans that November 6 is Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day II and they can cast their vote with their order.
Guys, can this even be a real thing? This is like some old coot crackpottery you read about in the comments section of “Parade” magazine. This is America. Americans are, at the very least, supposed to have our thorough corruption of the voting process appear neutral, but conservative legislators aren’t even pretending any more. Why do conservative judges still find the need to cover for them? Why can’t they just be honest and say in their opinions, “While this law will disenfranchise thousands of legitimate voters, those concerns are secondary to the overriding need to prevent Democrats from winning office.” This assault on bonafide Americans is an affront to everything I’ve come to expect from targeted voting restrictions in America! This is why I don’t believe in conspiracy theories: The people who demand power and strive to disenfranchise various people and parts of society are doing it out in the open. The GOP are like a bunch of Iranian Mullahs running a fair election.
All this voter ID shit and curtailed hours and purging of the rolls shenanigans, passed without an intervening general election… Legislators should face an intervening election, otherwise it looks like they are rigging the system to help insure their own re-election, cheating. With no actual fraud.First time in U.S. history voting’s been restricted. One can only hope that this wakes up those fence-sitting independent voters to the conservative’s continuing unconstitutional, illegal and immoral agenda.
PLEASE SCREAM AT THE PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR
717-787-2500
If you can prove you did, I”ll give you a prize.