Should a Photo ID be required to cast a vote?

I don't like the argument that voter fraud is so infrequent that we don't need checks to ensure the security of the process. If we don't currently have checks in place, doesn't it stand to reason that we possible don't see a lot of fraud because we don't have a good mechanism to detect it.

Voter fraud disenfranchises voters more than having to prove your identity ever would. As long as there is a mechanism in place to have free/low cost mechanisms for confirming identity I don't see the harm in requiring an ID. I don't buy the idea that it would be a hindrance to voting any more than our current registration process. In fact, I'd prefer that voting required some form of commitment to the process. In my opinion the small number of people voting is not the problem, but rather the small number of INFORMED people voting is.

We must show photo ID to purchase tobacco and alcohol. We must have a photo ID to operate a motor vehicle. We must show a photo ID to use our welfare benefits. So why the big hoorah about showing ID to cast a ballot? Unless (say it softly) that would deter the illegal alien and the dead from voting for the Dimocrats.

In Sweden, a Photo ID is not needed. All that is needed is that you have your voters paper, which is sent to you by post.

Voting fraud in Sweden has typically been cases in which SAP party members have helped typically elderly people to vote, which you are not allowed to do, as you can then influence the voting.

That somebody is voting with somebody else voter paper is quite unusual, and the effects of that seem to be lower than straight miscounting, although it is of course hard to know for sure.

So no, a Photo ID should not be required, it's not necessary.

Voter fraud is almost non-existent and typically involves republicans. ID laws are designed to reduce turn out in various democrat leaning demographics, this has been openly admitted to by the republicans that helped push for it in the recent election cycles. Meanwhile, the ID would slow things down at the polls, reduce turn out and still not prevent any fraud (fake IDs already exist, ask teenagers).

No.

Voter fraud is close to non-existent. Even the most aggressive Republicans pushing this issue routinely concede this. This is not a matter of partisanship.Non-partisan researchers simply do not find any evidence of voter fraud.

In contrast, a variety of factors have cost Democrats whole elections. I suggest one review Greg Palast's great work on the 2006 election, the illegal disenfranchisement of felons in Florida that gave Bush the election in 2000, "challenges" and other illegal techniques used to win the election for Bush in 2004, and so forth. Voter fraud is not the problem: Government fraud is.

Restricting voting overwhelmingly harms the poor and the black and brown. No wonder it is being pushed by overwhelmingly white, rich people.

Whatever. I live in Oregon. Everybody gets registered when they apply for a drivers license. If you don't drive you can still register. Guess what? Oregon mails every registered voter a ballot. Have NO CLUE how requiring a photo ID will do ANYTHING to reduce voter fraud. Do know the only person arrested for voter fraud was a registered REPUBLICAN working at the election commission counting votes. She was caught filling in votes on any issue voters did not vote on.

Requiring voter photo IDs is not a terrible idea. It is the timetable and method for imposing such a requirement that is the issue. There is also the issue as to whether it should be controlled by the states or Federal government. Some states do not have a very good record on upholding the right of every citizen to vote.

The goal should be both to verify voter eligibility and insure that every citizen that wants to vote can readily do so. Some elderly, physically challenged, and poor citizens have been voting for decades by meeting the requirements now in existence. To reasonably institute photo voter IDs without imposing a burden on eligible voters, it should be done over at least an eight year span after the next presidential election to insure that legislation about requirements is drafted fairly and capable of being enforced, and that no voter is denied the right to vote in the process. With Congress the way it is, it might take four years or mote just to draft the legislation and bring it to a vote.

We are talking the fundamental right of every citizen to vote - no small matter. Our nation has existed for 200 years without such a requirement. What is the rush?