Barbra Streisand is encouraging fans to stand up and fight against new U.S. voter identification laws. Link
Why is it not surprising that the impersonating Yentl is against photo ID at the polls.
Hard to believe they adopted this tenuous argument. More at PJ Rule of Law.
A stroll down memory lane reminds us that DOJ is trying to block Florida from reforming its early voting period. The law allows fewer days but overall equal and more convenient hours of voting, Such a reform also allows for necessary preparations on the Sunday before a busy Election Day. Such a reform allows 8am-5pm voters who usually work during the early voting day to have a few additional hours before or after normal work hours to drive to the early voting site and vote.
Frankly, this type of reform should be called the “Middle Class Voter Convenience Act.” Despite the opposition of DOJ, the vast majority of counties in Florida are using the new early voting timetable. Based on the statistics and reporting from Florida, it appears that with equal but more convenient hours, there is significantly higher turnout and better preparations for Election Day. And what do the Democrats led by Representative Corrine Brown do? File a lawsuit, accuse Governor Scott of “not wanting people to vote”, and demand that every county go back to the old inconvenient timetable for early voting.
“The big story I have been fascinated with over the early voting period is how
we were able to nearly double the number of early voters from the 2008 primary,
even with the decreased number of days,” said Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel.
Seminole reported about 7,800 early voters, and by Monday it had received
about 15,000 absentee ballots — also about twice the rate of 2008.
In Orange County, almost 18,000 people cast ballots by the close of early
voting on Saturday, compared with about 10,000 in 2008, said Orange County
Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles.
More here.
Columbus Dispatch Editorial on the Ohio ballot battle over military voting. Not sure I would call the extra days a “perk.” However, the Columbus Dispatch editorial board recognizes that if President Obama’s campaign is successful in its lawsuit, the additional early voting days will be eliminated. President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is suing Ohio to extend in-person early voting. At issue is whether it is fair for Ohio law to cut off early voting the Friday before Election Day for all Ohioans except those in the military, who are allowed to vote through the weekend and the Monday before Election Day. The lawsuit argues that Ohio law should not privilege military voters over all other Ohio voters. The aim of the lawsuit is to ensure that more Ohioans can vote through the Monday before Election Day, which the White House believes would help the president’s re-election chances. But if successful, the lawsuit ultimately might result only in denying members of the military their three-day voting privilege, and gain nothing for other voters
The voter fraud case in Hialeah expanded Friday to include the uncle of former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina. Sergio Robaina, 74, turned himself into authorities Friday afternoon. He has been charged with two felony counts of voter fraud and two misdemeanor counts of violating a county ordinance that prohibits having more than two absentee ballots. He is accused of filling out absentee ballots for a woman and her son. The investigation originated with the U.S. Postal Service, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. “Postal Service finds 160 some odd ballots arrived overnight, they call the Elections Department, the Elections Department calls the police and our prosecutors,” she said. Robaina is being held on $12,000 bond, according to online Miami-Dade Corrections records. It was not immediately known whether he has an attorney.
Attorney Joel Arends, Chairman of Veterans for a Strong America pens the following opinion piece. President Obama is the first and only Commander-in-Chief in the history of the Republic to petition a federal court claiming that allowing the men and women who serve under his command three extra days to vote in-person by absentee ballot is a violation of the United States Constitution. The former constitutional law professor’s campaign has brought suit and filed a formal legal complaint with a federal judge in the key swing-state of Ohio which asserts that his campaign cannot “discern[]” any “legitimate justification” for giving members of the military extra time to participate in early voting. In that same complaint, the President’s campaign argues at least twenty times that the Ohio legislature had no good reason to extend reasonable voting accommodations to military voters and that the law is unconstitutional
“It’s very important that each citizen is guaranteed their vote and that it not be adulterated by those voting illegally, whether they’re noncitizens, impersonating somebody else or taking somebody else’s ID to vote.”
“Statewide, 277 people cast provisional ballots for photo ID reasons, with 115 of them being counted after voters went to election offices in the required time and showed a proper photo ID, the state Division of Elections reported. That left 162 without a vote counted across the state.” Or about .026% of over 617,000 votes cast. More here.
Jeff Jacoby with the Boston Globe:
Senator Scott Brown is right: For the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be mailing voter-registration forms to nearly 480,000 welfare recipients — at a cost to taxpayers of more than $275,000 — is indeed “outrageous.” as the Republican incumbent declared last week. The vast get-out-the-welfare-vote campaign “smells wrong,” he says. So it does, but not for the reason he claims.
…Higher voter turnout is no proof of civic health. Voting is only a means, not the end, of democratic self-government. Of course every citizen has the right to vote, including those who are ignorant, apathetic, or indifferent. But why should Americans who take their vote seriously want to increase electoral participation by those who don’t?
Registering to vote isn’t complicated. By and large, Americans who don’t vote don’t want to vote. In 2008 the Census Bureau found that by far the largest share of unregistered voters (46 percent) reported that they were “not interested in the election [or] not interested in politics.” Their nonparticipation is rational, and we should respect it.
The debate continues in Iowa. “According to a 2008 Rasmussen poll, 80 percent of Iowans and even 56 percent of Democrats think requiring a photo ID to vote makes sense.”