*calls in*

[lyssie]

1. My sinus headache hurts (please dear god, ibuprofen and benadryl, knock me out soon), and if the WI weather could fucking pick a temperature and barometric pressure to stick with, it wouldn't be so bad. But it's up and down and up and down and...

2. I don't want to listen to co-workers whine about the election. I already had to listen to them whine yesterday about poor people getting to vote (after all, why else would they be annoyed that people who can't afford the state id card can still register? Are there people coming down from Canada pretending to be Wisconsinites voting here? C'mon, confess, bitches. You walk over the border, don't you). Or maybe it'll be about how the populace at large is so stupid and drunk on kool-aid (since according to at least one person on my flist, that's the only way this could possibly occur).

Now, I'm going back to bed so I will be less inclined to say "fuck you" to all the cynics on my flist.

Comments

[mamaboolj.livejournal.com]

Well given that the Canadians just gave the greatest portion (although not the majority, true) of their vote to a pretty conservative party, I don't see why they'd be so eager to come vote in our liberal.

Edit: and just because it works so perfectly with the icon...

Katee: Look Tahmoh, isn't that your socialist dad crossing the border to go pretend being a US citizen and vote in our election?

Tahmoh: *finishes filling ballot* Katee shut the frak up!

[meresy.livejournal.com]

Because your Democrats look like our Christian centre? *cough*

[mamaboolj.livejournal.com]

So true. So true.

[meresy.livejournal.com]

I confess! D:

[thatpalebluedot.livejournal.com]

You're shitting me? Complaining about the state id? Gah. IDIOTS. Well, whine away, morons--WE WON. :)

I am spamming this everywhere. It is that awesome.

[arrshley.livejournal.com]

Hope you're feeling better soon, sweetie!

[dreagoddess.livejournal.com]

There are valid reasons to support ID requirements other than hating poor people. Considering we had dead people voting in Dallas, to say nothing of Chicago. ;) Indiana has an ID requirement but makes provisions for free ID cards for those who need it, that sort of thing.

[nique.livejournal.com]

True, but after the last election, they did an investigation of voter fraud in Milwaukee... and there was none. The people who want to change our voting requirements aren't doing it because we have problems... they just want to keep African Americans and Hispanics away from the polls.

[dreagoddess.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, if someone votes under a false name, how do you prove that after the fact? Unless you happen to be in a small precinct where someone says "wait, you're not Jane Smith!" when you go to vote, no one is going to be able to tell. As long as the name they choose isn't Mickey Mouse or they vote for someone dead, it's very hard to find out that the Jane Smith who cast this vote isn't actually Jane Smith.

[nique.livejournal.com]

Because you can compare it to lists of people who actually live in the districts. It isn't that hard, really. If the state wants to demand IDs, they need to drop the price from thirty fucking dollars, first. It was a financial burden on me when I had to renew mine, I can't imagine how much it must suck for people who make even less than I do.

And besides, people make it sound like there's some huge conspiracy to vote illegally. When they can prove that there's something happening in numbers large enough to actually swing an election (and it would have to be local elections, because, let's face it, with the electoral college, unless you're in a swing state, a few votes one way or the other will not change a presidential election).

When someone actually has some proof the system is broken, we'll fix it. I see no reason to rob people of their vote because a few people think there 'might' be a problem, when there's been no evidence that this is the case.

(Interestingly, when they did the study? The places that actually had voter fraud were predominantly white communities in the suburbs.)

[dreagoddess.livejournal.com]

Not everyone who's registered votes, so how do you show that the people who voted were supposed to and not just those finding out who's in the hospital, out of town, or just not voting? I'm not saying that it's a huge problem at the moment, but there is a huge potential for it, and I don't think that a simple measure like trying to make sure people voting are who they say they are is purely a product of hating poor people. You have to show ID to do anything these days. (And again, my point originally was not "do we need these laws" but "is anyone supporting these laws doing it just because they hate poor people".)

I agree with you on lowering the fees. As I mentioned in my first comment, some states with mandatory voter ID laws have free or reduced-cost IDs available and programs to make sure people can get them. If that's the concern, then making sure programs like that work seems more effective to me than saying there's no need for the law at all.

[nique.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we require IDs for everything these days. I have to ask people at the library for them, and I HATE doing it, because tons of people just don't have them. But you know what? We offer those people other ways of proving who they are. That's not something the lawmakers here are interested in doing. Like I said, if it were evident that we had a problem, that would be one thing, but it's really just a small group of lawmakers who aren't happy with Wisconsin voting Democrat. They've been shot down by the courts several times now for trying to mess with the electoral process in the state.

Milwaukee county is the only county in the state constantly fingered as being 'full of fraud' no matter how many times it's proven otherwise. Coincidentally, we're the only county with a minority population worth mentioning. This doesn't mean that the poor/minority vote is the reason for it, but it sure looks that way.