Voter ID laws and Marriage

[Jenny A]

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First of all voting is the right from which all other rights and interests flow. If minorities or the elderly felt that marriage license laws were overly burdensome, they would have little if any voice in changing that burden without the right to vote.

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You are implying that voter ID laws take away a person's right to vote. They do not. Also, You need to balance minority and elderly needs with the needs of the overall electorate to feel confident in the election. What steps should be taken to insure a fair and honest election? Well that's a question best answered by the electorate. After all the election belongs to the entire electorate and not some tiny fraction of it.

I agree voter ID laws do not take away a person's right to vote, but they can burden it substantially. In the case of persons who would be required to pay for and get a photo ID just for the purpose of voting, that is a substantial burden. Given the energy levels of the elderly, and the transportation, time and income restraints of the working poor, it might very well prevent some voters.

There are a variety of possible protections in lieu of ID. Oregon mails ballots to the voters address and compares the voter's signature on the ballot envelope with the signature on file with the voter registration.
Comparing signatures at the polling place might be a substitute for ID. Voters might even choose which of the two methods to use so the line slowed by checking everyone's signature.

Issuing voter registration cards by mail for each election and requiring that them be brought to the polling place might be another. Voter registration cards with check boxes for each election for a few years out might accomplish the same thing more cheaply.

Fingerprint ID taken at the time of registration and compared electronically at the time of voting would be very secure.

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Next there are considerations of time frame and customary expectation. Production of a birth certificate, and other documentation such as marriage certificates and divorce decrees, not to mention death certificates for former spouses are all traditionally expected when applying for a marriage license. And they are documents most people have whether they drive or not.

Nor is there a marriage deadline that you can miss after which you don't get to marry, though for people who worry about children born out of wedlock there may be a non-legal deadline. Should you not bring the proper documentation the first time, you can go home and collect it even if that requires a calling county clerks offices in other states. Not so voting. If you don't have the proper ID on the day of election you are SOL for that election. Ditto registering for the election.

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Elections are not spontaneous events. The dates, polling places, and ballots, are produced well in advance. Plenty of time for a voter to obtain proper ID.

No, but they are time sensitive events. And they can create a time crunch for voters who have just moved. Recently, ID laws imposed weeks before the election have allowed little time at all.

Further we require people to produce IDs to buy cough syrup or get onto an airplane. Colds and emergent travel are spontaneous events that are harder to plan ahead for than an election well publicized in advanced. By requiring such ID are not we also infringing on the rights of elderly and minority to obtain medicine or travel freely? Why isn't the far left screaming about that? They don't really care about minorities or elderly people. They want to demonize the right with this issue by calling them racist and such.

Frankly, I prefer to do away with ID requirements for cough syrup, if indeed there are any in your state.

I doubt those too poor or too infirm to easily obtain a photo ID, fly very often if at all.

And again, voting is the right from which all other rights not constitutionally protected flow.