The Right to Keep and Bear - Voter ID

In his July 10th address to the NAACP, Holder was critical of the Texas voter ID law in particular. Criticizing the state for accepting concealed carry identification, but not student IDs under the voter ID proposal, “Now listen to this, listen to this. Under the proposed law concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student ID’s would not. Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them, we call those poll taxes.”

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Concealed carry ID is issued after checking to verify the person is who they say they are - including where they were born. School ID does not - often it does not even verify date of birth.

Need to travel great distances? Just perzakly how far would that be?

Some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them (driver's license)? Every jurisdiction I checked in Texas required a birth certificate in order to be registered in school for the first time. http://www.cfisd.net/aboutour/regist-prek.htm Where did that go in the intervening years? And if it "got lost" why was it not safeguarded better, seeing as how much it cost?

And some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need? Gee, where are all those organizations holding voter registration drives, and why are they not chipping in to cover the cost? But let's look and see what else besides the $22 is needed to get that birth certificate:
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/vs/reqproc/certified_copy.shtm

Send in the completed application with payment using one of the methods listed in the table below. If the birth occurred within the past 75 years, you must include a photocopy of your valid photo ID issued by a governmental entity. The following are acceptable forms of ID:

State-issued driver's license

• State/city/county ID card
• Student ID
• Government employment badge or card
• Prison ID
• Military ID

If you do not have a photo ID, you can instead send a copy of the photo ID of an immediate family member, or you can send copies of two documents showing your name, such as a utility bill and your Social Security card. One of the documents must have your signature.

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Why, my goodness! There are ways around needing that pesky driver's license in order to get a birth certificate.

We call those poll taxes

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No, they are not poll taxes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_(United_States) Now if those costs were required in order to vote and for no other purpose they would be a poll tax. But having a birth certificate and driver's license/non-driver ID card have many uses besides allowing you to vote.

Let's also address the claim that folks would lose money by being forced to take time off from work in order to obtain these documents. Unless my reading skills suddenly went away the entire application process for getting both a birth certificate and registering to vote http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqvr.shtml can be done by mail. Since they sell stamps in grocery stores and other places besides the Post Office even the claim of not being able to get there before they close is taken away.

So - what do we have here? Some folks say it's just an attempt to let folks who are ineligible to vote by virtue of not being a citizen not only cast a ballot in favor of getting more government cheese but using the fact of voter registration as a wedge to obtaining actual citizenship.

stay safe.

Why does Holder's (and his master's) resistance NOT surprise us?

Because a Concealed carry permit requires proof of citizenship for one thing. At least in Maine it does.

Yesterday I went to Maine BMV to get a Maine DL and drop the CT DL I have. Guess what I needed there? Yup, proof of citizenship/legal residence in the US (BC, Green Card or passport) AND residence (piece of mail with your address).

In Maine you now must show ID to vote too.

Why do the bleeding hearts whine about the cost of a State ID? Those who can't afford it are likely already on the govt. dole and will have one provided free of charge along with their medicaid card.

And of course they want student IDs to be allowed! ANYONE can get one of those regardless of citizenship.

Voting is for American Citizens! Just show reasonable proof of citizenship and you're all set.

Obama and Holder are in our face so much! They don,t even care that they're so obvious. It's sad that so many people still buy into it. He shouldn't even be discussing student IDs when there is Fast and Furious to answer for. It's amazing what people will overlook just to be a Democrat. Then there's the morons that don't even see it. " Ugh, you need ID for guns, students can't vote. Who's Holder? Wait what?" It's a sad state of affairs.

I was under the impression that Texas was not still under sanction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act . Those sanctions were imposed against southern states where racial discrimination used to be both rampant and part of the legal system.

Up until very recently the biggest impact was having to get DOJ sign-off on changing Congressional and state voting districts - they are still drawn crazily to ensure "equal" racial representation (except for those districts which are designated to have a majority of minority population members in order to "make up" for past inequities). The whole issue of the DL in order to meet voter registration requirements is fairly obviously a way to avoid questioning the right of the registrant to vote by questioning their citizenship.

I'm all for letting all the undocumented people vote - in the next election after their naturalization ceremony and receipt of their voter registration card.

stay safe.

You have to supply a whole lot more proof establishing your identity to get a CHL than you do a state ID or driver's license.

As for traveling? I had a 4 hour drive to get my social security card and a 4-6 hour drive to get my birth certificate. Did you forget this is Texas we're talking about, Skid? A lot of people live way out in the middle of nowhere. Now, I know in Virginia, you can like take an hour walk and end up in like New York or something. But in Texas, an hour's drive wont even get you out of the city.

As for the birth certificate. The one my family used for my siblings and I, to enroll us in school and whatnot, ended up invalid. So we had to get new birth certificates to get a state ID/driver's license. This meant driving out to some county way the hell away from here. Was like a 2 hour drive there and another 2 hours back. Just for a damned birth certificate. Same thing more or less for my social security card.