As an American citizen, you must have a government-issued ID in order to drive, fly, purchase alcohol and cigarettes, buy a house, get a loan, rent a car or apartment or hotel room, and qualify for government assistance, among other things. But should we really not be required to provide the same identification in order to vote?
That’s exactly what the opponents of the Voter ID bill would lead you to believe, and they are suing to keep it from being voted on. Ironic, no?
Opponents of a voter photo identification requirement have filed a lawsuit seeking to strike a proposed constitutional amendment from Missouri's 2012 ballot…
The lawsuit lists eight plaintiffs - including elderly, disabled, immigrant and student voters - who assert that they don't have valid government-issued photo IDs and would be burdened if they had to try to obtain the documents necessary to get a state identification card.
Arguing that the Voter ID bill specifically disenfranchises the poor and elderly (and somehow minorities) may be popular with the elitist crowd, but large percentages of these segments of the population are on some form of government assistance, assistance which requires the same identification verifications with loads of paperwork to boot; so the argument that a voter ID bill would place an unfair burden on these people is dishonest at best and a bald-faced lie at its worst. If it were really an unfair burden Liberals would be fighting against IDs (and the red tape they usually love so much) in every facet of our lives.
Like all American citizens, these supposedly “disenfranchised” voters are plenty used to being required to present identification and provide documentation on a regular basis.
"You can't function in today's society without a photo ID and I think using that at the ballot box is reasonable and rational," said [State Sen. Bill] Stouffer, R-Napton. "I don't think it's a barrier, I think it's a guarantee that you are who you say you are."
It would be curious as to why the Left singles out voting among all of the other ID-required situations if the game they’re playing weren’t so obvious. But our voting system should not be a free-for-all, assuming it’s as important a Constitutional right as we’ve been taught it to be.
In a time where most Americans are walking around with pocket-sized computers, asking them to carry a plastic card with their picture on it is nothing to balk at.
- B.H.
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