ID Required to Vote is Not Racist
I will admit right off the bat that I’m a little bit high-strung and I’m extremely passionate about certain topics. And this just happens to be one of those topics.
This is really starting to piss me off, we are in 2024, not 1901. Are you telling me that we can’t solve the problem that more than 13 million legal U.S. citizens of voting age still don’t have a valid form of identification? This is NOT a racist problem, this is a problem of how our Government is set up and operating.
In this country you need a form of ID to do many things including (but not limited to):
- Receive Food Stamps
- Receive Unemployment
- Receive and cash a Stimulus Check
- Receive COVID Vaccine
- Receive Welfare Benefits
- Buy Alcohol in most states
- Buy a Legal Gun
- Get Married
- Freedom of movement (Drive, FLy, Take a Bus or Train)
- Rent a hotel room
- See a Doctor
- Buy a vehicle
- Get a Job
- Apply for a loan
- Unemployment Benefits
- Disability
- Medicare
- Passport
- Tax Returns
Buying items regulated by law requires a government ID to verify your identity and age. Certain stores are legally required to ask customers for ID when purchasing items such as:
- Guns
- Alcohol
- Tobacco
- Cold medicine – In many states, it is against the law for pharmacists to provide customers with over-the-counter cold or cough medicine that contains dextromethorphan or pseudoephedrine without them showing their ID.
- To Drive – Driving without a license in the US is not only illegal, it is actually considered a crime in all states as well as in Washington, DC. This means that all drivers must have a valid driver’s license on hand in case they are stopped by an officer while driving.
An ID is required if you want to obtain a passport, you get called to serve on a jury, open a bank account, or cross in and out legally across the US borders. If you were ever a felon, you are required to carry registration cards and present them to law enforcement authorities on request.
Stop and Identify Laws in the United States
Laws known as “stop and identify” exist in 26 states across the US (and part of Missouri). This means that people are required to identify themselves in the event that a police officer has reasonable suspicion that they are involved or about to engage in criminal activity.
Which states have stop and identify laws?
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Missouri (Kansas City only)
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Rhode Island
- Utah
- Vermont
- Washington
- Wisconsin
You can’t convince me that in 2020 we had 168.31 million registered voters in the United States and 155.5 million voters voted for their choice of President. And the difference between those two numbers is 13 million, yep the 13 million that can’t vote. So you’re telling me that every single registered voter voted during that election? Well, I know for a fact that isn’t factual, I know at least two dozen friends, co-workers, and family that are registered to vote, but didn’t vote for whatever reason.
What Is The Problem?
Great question, and the answer isn’t that straight forward as one might think, but it is repairable. First things first, as many as 11 percent of United States citizens – more than 21 million individuals – do not have government-issued photo identification. Using 2000 census calculations of the citizen voting-age population, this translates to more than 13 million American adult citizens nationwide who cannot easily produce documentation proving their citizenship.
Eleven percent of the American citizens surveyed responded that they do not have current, unexpired government-issued identification with a photograph, such as a driver’s license or military ID.
As many as 7% of United States citizens – 13 million individuals – do not have ready access to citizenship documents (birth certificates / U.S. naturalization papers). All birth certificates and naturalization papers are supposed to be recorded somewhere. Last year I ordered copies of my birth certificate from over 50 years ago.
Elderly citizens are less likely to possess government-issued photo identification. Survey results indicate that seniors disproportionately lack photo identification. Eighteen percent of American citizens age 65 and above do not have current government-issued photo ID.
The most common form of government-issued ID are driver’s license. The less likely to drive categories are the elderly, poor, and people living in big cities. This means that they may have never had a driver’s license.
Some of today’s elderly were born outside of hospitals, some never had birth certificates, and some never had SSNs. Those that had driver licenses, are now expired or have incorrect information. In these cases – Early public records like a baptism certificate, U.S. Census records, U.S. school records, a hospital birth certificate, a family bible record, doctor or medical records, or Form DS-10 Birth Affidavit are accepted for the purpose of identification for the Federal Government.
But we want to argue that if we require one to vote, that is racist. Bullshit, that has nothing to do about race. Now you are going to make the argument that those who don’t have an ID are mostly black. I will give you that, but requiring one to vote is not racist. It is a problem that can be solved, but we don’t want to solve it. Did these 11 million people get a Stimulus Check or a COVID vaccine?
The Solution
First, we target those who have no form of ID, we use mobile traveling ID centers. We enroll these people as they are in a country-wide ID system. We get target questions answered by each individual so research can start on tracking down the correct records for each person. Most should have an SSN since that program started in 1936. We ask them to bring in anything that helps to identify them, like an SSN or expired ID, a driver’s license (valid or expired), a birth certificate, and so on. They will out a questionnaire that will be used for the research. The standard questions like name, DOB, City, State you were born in, what schools attended, employer, and what Government services you use (welfare, food stands, WIC…). We will take their photo and fingerprints and they will leave with a Federal ID, that is useable to vote. Their name, photo, and locational data will go into a database which is what is used to validate them for voting. The database will use AI to search for any duplication.
If more detailed records are discovered, such as a birth certificate, or a driver’s license, that information will be used to generate a different type of Federal ID that expires in 10 years, and the old ID will be canceled and removed from the database.
The result is a majority of those who can’t vote due to not having a valid form of ID will have the ability now. The goal is to identify as many people as possible.
If we can fund stupid projects, then we can certainly toss some money at this.
Let’s just stop bitching about it and get it done now, you can thank me later.
