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Comment by erentz | Hacker News Reader

I’m not sure why ID cards are necessary. If we wanted to do that we would need to make them very easy and free for everybody to get, including getting them on the day of the election. Otherwise it becomes too much of a tool to deny part of the population the ability to vote. (Which is sadly how it’s been used so far in the USA as far as I can tell.)

What is needed is verification against double voting. You must enroll, and so long as you’re enrolled, your name and zip code are on the roll. You go to one of the polling booths for your area. Your name gets ticked off when you vote. If it’s already ticked off then you cry fowl and an investigation must begin why. This seems to work on most of the world not sure why it wouldn’t work here.

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It works here. Voting fraud is incredibly rare.

Where is 'here'?

Also, voter fraud is incredibly rare in the US, and we didn't need ID cards to accomplish that.

How do we know it's incredibly rare?

What evidence would we need to know that all persons voting are actually valid voters?

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

We have cases in California of people voting with their dead relatives' ballots. This a lot easier with voting by mail.

We know because many manhours of research has vetted this topic and the consensus is clear: there are very few cases of in person voting fraud in the United States.

Very few meaning about 250 cases over a 15 year period.

Millions upon millions of votes are cast during this timeframe.

Frankly, I expect more fraud to naturally exist, like you.

But it just isn't a problem in the US.

Voting by mail is a state level thing, not every state has the option to vote by mail.

Ideology aside, it is a solution looking for a problem.

Turnout is also much higher. A few dead ballots suck, but the higher turnout renders them moot.

There have been numerous studies proving that systemic (not andecdotal) voter fraud doesn’t exist.

https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud...

And there have been public comments by GOP politicians saying they’re pushing voter ID laws explicitly to disenfranchise democratic voters.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/some-republicans-ac...

Race and voting demographics show Democrats have an edge nationwide that will continue to grow over the next decade and on. Republicans know this and this is why they hit mid-terms so hard. General voting is down and it’s easier to win. Add suppression methods, including psychographic warfare and they know they have a shot to rig the system.

This why Trump won and why our Supreme Court is going to take away the rights of workers, minorities, women, and immigrants.

Where do you think voting fraud is not incredibly rare?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/03/he...

> How often does it find fraud? For that, we turn to the much-cited 2014 analysis of voter fraud reported by The Post. Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt looked at 14 years of voting and found 31 possible incidents of in-person voter fraud, comprised of approximately 241 fraudulent ballots.

>Otherwise it becomes too much of a tool to deny part of the population the ability to vote.

Like the existing voter registration system?

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