Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by minikites | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

minikites

Voter ID laws aren't about protecting elections, they're about disenfranchising voters:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/some-republicans-ackno...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/21/trump-advise...

View on HN

If this was the case, then why do 17 other countries require ID when voting? Are they too "disenfranchising voters"??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_Identification_laws#Norw...

I would make a note that a majority of the Nordic countries like Sweden, Norway, and Iceland ALL require some form of ID when voting.

They also have national IDs, which simplifies the situation.

Some of them even have compulsory national IDs, obviously that changes the dynamics of the situation entirely.

And they also don't have the 24th amendment.

I would bet the number of voters who are disenfranchised there is > 0

It's about keeping non-citizens who don't have the right to vote from voting. Not implementing these laws diminishes the enfranchised.

Nope, just another form of Poll tax: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_taxes_in_the_United_State...

No, it isn't. However, let's assume it is. If you don't pay your (separate and presumably uncontroversial) federal taxes, you become a felon and legally disenfranchised. It becomes clear this is all a minor accounting detail.

Do we have any evidence that non-citizens voting is an actual problem, or are you just spreading FUD?

The GP has linked some well sourced articles about how voter ID laws have been used for primarily racist purposes in the US. Do you have any evidence that supports another narrative?

That's just propaganda based on speculation about what the "other side" intends with voter ID laws. People want voter ID laws so that non citizens can't vote. This is the reason why many developed countries around the world have some form of voter ID.

Some Republicans Acknowledge Leveraging Voter ID Laws for Political Gain

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/some-republicans-ackno...

Of course the desires of a few obscure people are irrelevant to the actual merits of voter ID. There are some Democrats who support immigration because they hate white people and want to "Brown" the country. Does that mean immigration is automatically a bad thing? Of course not.

Policies must be judged on their merits, not the reasons people support them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com