January 31, 2010
I am suspicious of the motives of the individuals or organizations that have been or now are against a reasonable Voter ID initiative, such as Senator George Runner’s proposed ballot initiative known as VoteSAFE. Nearly 100 countries in the world have some type of Voter ID policy in place including Mexico.
Here’s what: In Mexico, to cast a ballot, the voter – all of the voters – must prove citizenship and eligibility by presenting the federally issued Mexican voter ID card – which not only bears the photo of the potential voter, but a fingerprint, a barcode and a holographic image to deter tampering. Oh my. No photo voter ID card – no voting. Si? After having voted, the voter’s finger is dipped in ink to prevent repeat – or three-peat – voting. To no one’s surprise, nobody in Mexico gets very far with the argument that this is somehow unfair, excludes the poor or discriminates against English-speaking voters.
The VoteSAFE iniative is much less onerous than Mexico’s requirement. As the Latino population is becoming more politically astute as many assert, then we indeed should look to Mexico as a role model in implementing a secure Voter ID policy.
It’s purely political. Voter fraud is a fact of life. There have been many instances of people encouraging people that are not citizens to register and to vote in order to unduly influence the outcomes of elections. And as it turns out, those who improperly vote turn out to be overwhelmingly democrats. Most voters of all party affiliations are citizens and vote legally. But some races are so close that the cheaters can change the outcomes.
That is one reason why I am not enthusiastic in supporting Ms.Bowen for Secretary of State. I think in my 2006 blog post I supported the Libertarian Party nominee because
A) Bowen supports voting W/O ID, where I could go to Bowen’s precinct and say that I am her husband and wola… voter fraud.
B) McPherson supported insecure voting machines.
I guess I will likely vote Libertarian Party again for secretary of state.