Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Any Old Old Person Can Vote

In Utah County, we're humming along with early voting. To vote early, you must present voter identification, unless you are 65 or older. Weird. Here is the scoop from the Utah County web site. Emphasis in original.

In order to be eligible to participate in Early Voting, voters must be registered to vote at least 30 days prior to the election and provide valid voter identification. Valid voter identification means:

  • 1. a form of identification that bears the name and photograph of the voter;
  • or
  • 2. two forms of identification that bear the name of the voter and provide evidence that the voter resides in the voting precinct.

NOTE: Identification is not required for those who are 65 or older or disabled.


Keryn said...

Um...okay. That make absolutely NO sense whatsoever. What, a senior citizen or disabled person is less likely to try to commit voter fraud? If it is because senior citizens and disabled people are less likely to have photo ID...that's also dumb. Do we have these laws to prevent fraud, or to just make someone feel better? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Bradley said...

I guess you are a bit more passionate about this than me. I don't mind so much making temporary accommodations for the elderly. (Are they temporary? I don't know. I hope so.)

Keryn said...

And another thing...if this is just a temporary measure to help senior citizens, what about SAHMs who have husbands who works horrendous jobs and only have one car? They may not have current ID, either, and no provision is made for them. And what qualifies you as "disabled"?

If it is just a temporary measure to help those without photo ID, then everyone should get the exemption for a while and then the law should be enforced for everyone. If we can get our senior citizens to the voting booths to vote, then we can make an effort and get them to the DMV to get a photo IDs.

Reach Upward said...

I don't like the idea of creating special classes of people unless the reasons for doing so outweigh the negative side effects. We do this kind of thing far too much in our society, and it causes nothing but problems.

Far better would be to create special rules for those that claim that they do not have an acceptable photo ID. Better than that would be to issue a photo ID card like they have in Mexico when you register to vote, and then don't let anyone vote that doesn't have one. Criminy, this ain't rocket science, folks.