Quote (Santara @ Mar 9 2015 09:43pm)
What good is describing the mentality of treating everyone equally before the law to someone who condones pandering?
Equally how? You realize that following principles with blind faith and no application of reason or analysis per case is not just silly, but dangerous, right?
I suppose requiring every registered voter to possess photo id is good in theory to prevent voter fraud. Same with refusing felons the right to vote and checking to make sure the felon lists are updated ahead of elections.
Voter identification fraud is a myth. Minorities are much less likely to possess photographic ID, most common in the form of a driver's license that usually requires something expense, such as a car, to possess. If photo id was required to vote, the rate of disenfranchised voter to fraudster prevented is probably 60,000 to 1, with the majority of those 60,000 being racial minorities (and if history is any predictor, that 1 fraudster will be white). That assumes that the average 1 fraudulent ballot in 3.7 million was even intentional, which they don't always end up being.
Refusing felons the right to vote makes some sense. Checking and updating the list does, too. Making a blanket list and then requiring tens of thousands of voters, a disproportionate amount of whom are racial minorities, to substantially prove to the state and local governments that they're not felons mere days or a couple weeks in advance of voting deadlines is beyond stupid.
Idealistic goals based on principles with awful results. I suppose racial minorities are all equal before the law in these cases, though, if not equal before any other part of anything that correlates to a rational, sustained reality.
This post was edited by Interesting on Mar 10 2015 03:01am