Saturday, October 18, 2014

Voter ID

   
         I am not opposed to having to produce identification in order to vote. It ensures that only those who are legally allowed to vote do so. It helps prevent voter fraud.

            The best form of voter ID would be to make those people who want to vote go get a license to vote. There would be no more registering on election day. You would have a waiting period to get your license in order to give officials time to confirm your eligibility to vote. You would have to produce your license at the polling place, or in the case of absentee ballot, you would have to send a copy of your license and the ballot would have to be mailed to the address listed on the license.

            Of course, there would be rules for those who are in the military as they cannot be home to vote. Those who are living abroad will have to make arrangements to have their ballots sent from their home address to wherever they are, and then ensure that they get those ballots back to the proper place in time. If you want to vote, you have to make sure you are in a position where you are able to. Between absentee balloting and the traditional polls, that provides ample opportunity for anyone who is legally allowed to vote, the ability to exercise their right.

            You may think these measures are extreme and prevent the poor and minorities from exercising their right to vote. Well, these measures aren’t all that extreme. They are some of the same measures used to ensure that people in a different class of citizens are who they say they are, and are legally permitted to exercise their rights;

            Gun Owners

            That’s right. Gun owners have to jump through a lot of hoops in order to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. Many of the very same people who cry foul when it comes to voter ID laws don’t feel the same about placing such restrictions on gun owners.

            Now, I can see where they place their logic. They say that if one person votes who isn’t supposed to, “What’s the harm?”, whereas if the wrong person gets possession of a gun, the potential damage is much greater.

            Well, the fact of the matter is, a right is a right. Both rights are enshrined in the constitution although many gun opponents try to deny that.

            What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If licensing and proper registration is proper for ensuring that only those lawfully permitted can own firearms, then the same can be said of requiring similar measures to ensure that only those lawfully permitted are allowed to vote.

            One further measure would help protect against voter fraud. I have seen video of elections in many countries where a person’s finger is dipped in ink after they vote. This is so they cannot go elsewhere and vote because the ink stains the skin to the point that it is not easily washed off.

            Similar measures can be used here in our country, but there is an easier solution. Fingerprints. It’s not out of the realm of reality to use a fingerprint scanner at voting and polling places to further ensure that a person is who they say they are. When I lived in Georgia and got my Georgia driver’s license, they made me place my finger on a fingerprint reader and they took a scan of it. For those who absentee ballot, a little card can be sent with the ballot to have a person put their fingerprint, much like those little kits that you can purchase for your kids.

            As far as intrusion into privacy, which is a real concern, we would say that the information gathered not be treated any different than the fingerprint scans are used in Georgia. Actually, if you think of it, here in Iowa, your photo is digitally stored and used by government agencies all the time. This is why they won’t allow you to smile when taking your driver’s license photo these days. It’s because their computer program needs you to be straight faced in order for them to read your face and put it in a database. How is giving your fingerprint any different than giving your face’s digital identification?

            In the end, I’m sure I’m over-simplifying the solution to the problem. This is where putting great minds together would most likely come up with a better solution than I can present here. However, what I am presenting here is the direction our government should be heading to ensure that only those who are legally able to are the ones who are participating in our elections.
 

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