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| Yes | 78% | 411 votes | Total: 524 votes | |
| No | 22% | 113 votes |
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Add to FavoritesPhoto identification is the only surefire way to make sure that the people that show up for the polls to vote are who they say they are. It is a common rule that voters must have their voter ID cards along with any sort of photo identification. A photo ID, in most cases show that you are indeed a United States citizen.
To vote in the United States during any sort of voting for elections or state amendments, one must be at least eighteen years of age and a United States citizen. In a sense, getting carded to vote should be treated as the same way as one is carded before buying alcohol or a pack of cigarettes. You have to be at least eighteen to buy cigarettes and at least twenty-one to buy and consume alcohol.
When you're buying something and paying with a debit card or by a written check, they check your photo ID to make sure that you are actually making the purchase. Nowadays, you won't be able to get anywhere much without having some sort of photo ID. Even if you are buying a videogame with the M-rating, they check your ID. Without proper verification, everything can get torn apart.
Voting should be treated no differently.
In any sort of elections, we get our voters registration card in the mail. On the card, it has your name, birthday, home address, party affiliation, and the location of where you are supposed to be to cast your vote in. The polling location listed on your voter registration card ensures that you are in the correct place.
The birthday on both your voter registration card and your photo ID makes sure that you are in fact the actual person on the list. Polling locations do have a list of people who are supposed to be at there to vote.
Of course there are more than one person that does share the same first name and last name. That does bring up the need of photo identification to make sure that everything is kosher. Without photo identification present, it just gives way to much fraud. It only takes one case of fraud to turn the voting upside down.
A person could easily steal your voter identification card. If they do not check photo identification, that person could easily steal your vote.
One could ask: Why would someone want to steal my vote?
To answer that, one could look at the last two presidential elections. There were many cases of voter fraud and voters being deceived and so forth. The 2004 elections were very interesting. It could be interesting as the current 2008 presidential races and upcoming general elections. However, the 2004 races were interesting in a disgusting and despicable way.
I've worked the 2004 campaigns and heard about the interesting stories that had taken place during the polls. Without photo identification, one could steal your vote and vote for the other candidate. It could happen. Candidates that want to win badly regardless of how dirty and illegal the tactics are will resort to that type of stuff. With proper photo identification, it prevents it from happening.
One case of voter fraud can turn everything upside down. Results would be delayed for many weeks because of voter fraud. A candidate who should not have been elected could end up in office. Having a photo ID present on you and as a requirement for voting definitely saves a lot of trouble.
If you are voting, it won't kill you to take out your photo ID. Photo identification as a requirement is one of the measures that can safeguard the integrity of such elections. It is very simple; one has to simply take out his/her photo ID and voter identification card. Wait about a minute and then you can vote. One can simply afford to spare a few more minutes. You would not be going anywhere soon when you are waiting in line.
The most common types of photo ID would be your driver's license, military ID, or your passport. In most cases, many Americans over the age of 16 have a driver's license. Military personnel already have a military ID. If you travel overseas, you already have a passport.
Learn more about this author, Can Tran.
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No
Presuming there are qualifications for registering to vote, there is no need for photo identification to be required to receive or cast one's ballot. There is process in place for challenging the validity of registrants, and simple processes for updating registration information. Turning the requirement to show proof of eligibility from one of reasonable process for challenge is contrary to the concepts of freedom, liberty, and justice.
Ballots should be made available to every registered voter either through the mail or at a designated polling place. If there is reason to verify or challenge the validity of the registration, there is process through which the registrant can answer or appeal.
There is an inequity in requiring those who show up to polls to present identification, and allowing mail in ballots without requiring photo identification. If a person shows up at the proper precinct with a voter's registration card, and signs by the name for comparison to the registered signature, it is unfair both to the voters and the pollsters to require photo identification. It violates the principles of freedom by requiring extra duty from some citizens, and it is obviously unjust.
If we were to take one segment of society in consideration of liberty - military personnel who are not stationed in their home states - we run into an almost unsurmountable problem with the concept of requiring photo identification. In many cases, military personnel are allowed to drive with licenses issued from their home states that do not have photo identification. They are allowed to complement the lack of that photo with their government issued military identification. They have the right to vote for representation in the district of their permanent home addresses, despite being stationed elsewhere.
Requiring photo identification to register to vote in addition to the sworn statement made in the registration would make registration cumbersome for military personnel and families stationed elsewhere. It could also pose problems with legitimate registrations from college students attending schools away from home. Requiring photo identification for registration is contrary to the principles of liberty; ironically, with the greatest cost to those who defend our liberty and their families.
There are certainly problems we need to concern ourselves with when it comes to making sure only legitimate votes are cast. However, we do not need to compound the problem by essentially eliminating the right to cast legitimate votes for many in order to catch the few who vote illegally.
Before we worry too deeply about requiring photo identification as a prerequisite to vote, which is suspect in the first place, we should consider what the town of Roy, Washington recently encountered. The little town requires that its elected officials be registered voters, which is a common rule in many jurisdictions. However, that rule did not stop them from electing a mayor whose felony conviction at 18 eliminated her right to vote! Though she claims that she thought her right to vote had been restored, it had not! She did, however, have photo identification that would indicate her right to vote in that district, but did not contain the disqualifying factor that her right to vote had been rescinded with her felony conviction!
Other than that, she did a fine job!
There are bigger problems regarding voting in this country than requiring registered voters to prove who we are. We should always try to eliminate voter fraud, but requiring photo identification to cast one's vote is not only not the answer; it would create bigger problems than we already have!
Learn more about this author, Tom Koecke.
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