Sunday, May 29, 2011

Photo ID, Fingerprints, Retinal Eye Scans and Voting in America

Quick: Which of the things listed below do NOT require a photo ID to perform?

(a) Buy cigarettes or alcohol
(b) Enter a federal building
(c) Board a commercial airplane
(d) Purchase over-the-counter antihistamine
(f) Vote in an election

You are correct. 'F' it is, dumb as it is. Completely absurd in 21st century America.

Apparently, the most cherished thing we have in our democratic republic, the right to vote, is taken less seriously than the right to smoke, drink or take drugs.

Maybe if we added some nicotine, alcohol or pseudoepinephrine to the ballot to lick before we voted, then maybe we could get photo IDs into the public elective process where they belong.

2214 DEAD people voted early in North Carolina during the 2010 elections. 64% were Democrats; 32% were Republicans and 4% must have been from the 'Fusion' Movement of the early 20th century since these early voters were at least 110 years old.

The least they could have done would have been to have had a valid death certificate attached to them as they voted. It has a coroner’s validation on it with a notary seal as well.

Honestly. What is the big deal about having photo IDs to vote in an American election anyway?

If you have never been: 1) a candidate for public office; 2) worked on a political campaign; or 3) managed a political campaign, let us count the ways for you that votes can be manipulated one way or another by people who are less honorable than Mother Teresa. They have been in politics for centuries dating back to the ancient Greeks.

Former Congressman Alex McMillan (NC-9) won his first election to Congress in 1984 by a whopping 321 votes. Out of over 220,000 votes cast. He increased his vote margin in 1986 by over 11 times and won by a then-whopping 4221 votes over the same opponent in a terrible year for Republicans across-the-board.

The most feared thing by any chief of staff or campaign manager is a close election, say, less than 5000 votes. Why? How many times have you seen or heard of some guy showing up with a bag of ballots that were ‘mysteriously’ found under some chair in the back of the school choir chamber at 4:00 am in the morning after the election in some small town in some small rural county in any state you can name?

Or in a big city like Chicago? JFK would never have become President Kennedy had it not been for the strong-arm tactics of Mayor Daley in Chicago in November 1960. Or for that matter, the ‘mysterious’ victory of a Catholic presidential candidate in Texas the same year. (oh, wait! LBJ was on the same ticket with JFK at the same time he was running for re-election as Senator from Texas in case JFK lost the presidential election! There was no way LBJ was going to lose both elections at the same time, we can assure you)

We know of a case where the candidate went home at 3:30 am on primary night with a 3000-vote lead in votes with virtually all of the precincts reporting only to wake up at 7:30 am to find out he had lost by 5000 votes somehow in the intervening 4 hours. There was a 8000-vote margin swing from a handful of precincts which is unheard-of since some precincts only had a couple of hundred people voting in each of them total.

Apparently, the precincts from the local cemeteries had been rounded up and organized at the last moments of the campaign. While everyone else was sleeping.

Go. Figure.

There is always ‘a guy’ that people ‘in the know’ say during a campaign ‘you have got to get to know’ in such-and-such a county or city because presumably, he knows ‘where the votes are in case of a tight election.’ Maybe they are the same votes as were cast in the 1960 presidential election but it makes no difference. These are votes that can be ‘counted on’ to get your man or woman over the top in the case of a tightly contested vigorous election.

In this day and age of technological wizardry, doesn’t it make sense to use it in our elections for public office? We have instant replay for NFL and college football; Wimbledon uses lasers to determine whether a serve by Serena Williams hit one molecule of the white tape or not; and you can not get on a plane anymore without a virtual body cavity search.

Do you mean to tell us we can not use PHOTO ID to determine if a person is eligible to vote or not?

Here’s who should be able to vote: duly registered natural-born and naturalized citizens who are not felons over the age of 18.

Here’s who should NOT be able to vote in any political election for public office (although they do with regularity now around the nation): felons, dead people, illegal immigrants without a green card, people who did not take the time to officially register to vote beforehand, and people who crowd 6 people into one voting booth at the same time. (seen it with our own eyes….many, many times)

Our right to vote as free people in our cherished democratic republic is severely compromised when we turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the corruption that is rampant in vote-fixing and ballot-stuffing. It makes elections a joke and makes us believe that those who oppose such technological advancements in assuring clean elections are either naïve or just plain thrilled to see illegalities abound in our duly-established elections.

If it were up to us, we would mandate Photo IDs tomorrow morning and enforce them with fingerprint matches and retinal eye scans at the place of election. In the case of absentee and mailed-in ballots, subject each and every one to a rigorous signature verification scan before opening the envelope.

Our freedom and republican form of government are totally dependent on the integrity and veracity of our legal citizens voting legally each time an election is held.

You can choose to vote or not when you are alive. That is called ‘freedom’.

On this Memorial Day, let's remember that our fathers and forefathers who died in battle defending our freedom did not do so to allow every illegal resident; felon; unregistered voter and dead person license to vote in our civic elections. It is dishonoring to them to besmirch their heroism and valor by turning a blind eye to the corruption still inherent in our voting system.

We have the technology in the 21st century to ensure that every single vote is valid and legal unlike at any time in human history. Let's use it.

Fix it now. Pass Photo ID in every state and county. For the good of the nation and continuation of The Republic.

(tip of the hat to Ann Stone for circulating the rhetorical question posed at the beginning of this post)

4 comments:

  1. But Frank. Doncha know? Pelosi says elections shouldn't matter as much as they do!!!! And by golly, if this past legislative session in Florida is any indication, she's right! Ouch.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQUWE7Xzn4I&feature=player_embedded

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  2. I know, I know...the former Speaker wants to make all the decisions and then tell all of us peons what the legislation is supposed to mean...later.

    that sorta thinking went out of America's spirit long about 1776, don't you think? something about too much concentration of power in one person's (The King) hands, mouth and brain?

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  3. My experience as an election day poll watcher last November almost made me an advocate of competency testing. People were brought into the polling place who did not know what planet they were on much less who was running. IT is not their fault, but these folks simply had lost it. Yet, they were accompanied by folks they had “designated” to help them vote. After one lady brought in four or five car loads during my four-hour stint, I suggested the judges challenge her, but they would not do so, including the Republican judge.

    It is sad, that these old folks are being used and abused. While they have a right to vote, they are not voting, their bodies are being used to vote the views of others. While I favor photo IDs, it will not stop this abuse, for which I have no good solution.

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  4. Maybe if we added some nicotine, alcohol or pseudoephedrine to the ballot to lick before we voted, then maybe we could get more people to vote.

    ReplyDelete

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