Texas Election Judge Had To Turn Away 93-Year-Old Veteran Due To Strict Voter ID Law | ThinkProgress


Was this 93 year old veteran too lazy or too indifferent when he showed up to vote and was not allowed to vote because his driver's license had expired, no surprise there.

I don't think my opinion is important, as I wrote on an earlier post. However let me posit a situation for you. All the home owners in Bridgeport decide to have a local social council. Everyone interested will pay ten dollars a year and the money will be used for some event which the council will plan and execute. This is widely seen as a great idea and lots of your neighbors decide they would like to be on the council. Some hate square dancing and want to be there just to be sure that is not the chosen activity. Some just enjoy the honor, or the power of being on a council. If you want to run you submit your name and there will be a vote with the top 5 people becoming council members. So far so good.

Now it turns out that a few families in Bridgeport are not Florida residents. Some are snowbirds from Ohio, some might be Canadians or even, perish the though, Brits. Are you going to let those non-Florida people vote for your local social council? Those Ohioans might want to make everyone to cook buckeyes. Those Canadians might vote to have a hockey game. The Brits might want bangers and mash. If the answer is no you would only allow registered Florida residents who are also US citizens to vote in this very local concern, then you would be staying consistent with the idea that there need to be very strict rules about who can vote about anything in this country.

If on the other hand you say, well they live here and are part of this community so they should certainly have a say in our little social council as this is just a local concern which impacts them. Then you agree with the people in Takoma Park MD who allow non-citizens to have a say in their very local elections for things like school board and town council.

So GG, which side are you on when it is presented that way? If a local community wants to allow all its inhabitants to have a say in its local issues, why would I as an outsider care?

Gee 6 years? How did you come up with that time period? :doh:

I believe I missed a 'yes' or 'no' in this response to the original question, "Do you think that people who are not U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote?"

My answer is YES - non citizens ( not illegals) should be allowed to vote in local elections. They would have to show proof of citizenship in their own country, be local residents, and have a pay stub showing deduction of FICA.

Don't you think it would be discriminatory to require the non-citizen voter to have a job, and even worse, to have to go through the anguish of having to present some type of formal ID?

Well, my Dad is a WWII USMC vet who is 94 and lives in Austin TX. He votes every year, but he also knows enough to have some form of viable ID. In other words, he takes responsibility.

Now, I agree it’s unfortunate that the guy you cite in the article could not vote, and that does indeed tug us emotionally towards … “hey who needs any rules at all … just let everybody vote without an ID” (Actually some on this board say let non-citizens vote … go figure). However, I don’t think this one guy’s situation is sufficient to negate this gist of what I said.

Not suggesting that there be no rules, but perhaps the Texas Legislature could have added an exception clause allowing people over 90 to use an expired driver's license as their photo ID. Does anybody think that this veteran, who has been voting for 70 years, is no longer a citizen of the US?

there will always be a worthy exception to every rule or law. The problems begin when emotions make an exception because there can never be just one!

The net of enforcement always catches more than intended, however the law is the law.

Just look at all the issues and problems this country has everytime laws are not enforced. Illegal immigration being one....voter identification for another...just to name two current events but sterling examples of lack of enforcement.

No.

Also, remember I am advocating this for only local elections - not state or national. If a non-citizen is here legally (and that is who we are talking about) that they WILL have a valid passport from their country as ID.

As for having a job, this shows a tie to the area. Details can be worked out by someone in charge of such matters. I am retired.

Just curious, Tex, what viable government issued ID does your 94 year old dad use?

If having a job is sufficient evidence for showing 'a tie to the area' for the resident non-citizen...how does the unemployed resident citizen show their tie to the area?

And if this 93 year old vet lived in Florida, he would be allowed to vote with no problem just by voting by mail, no ID required. IMO Florida has the best voting system I have ever had the privilege of using.

Details can be worked out and have been worked out in some American communities.

So, Sandtrap, you support the right of all people to vote in the U.S. National Elections, even if they are not citizens of the U.S.?

We don't want the "details worked out" ... we want for only US citizens to vote, and for non-citizens, illegal aliens and for that matter extraterrestrial aliens to NOT vote in US elections.

This is pretty simple actually ...