Not To Repeat Myself…
By Mitch Berg
…but I’m going to repeat myself. It’s a paragraph from a post I wrote last night for this morning. As I wrote it, I thought the paragraph stood up as a post on its own.
Mark Ritchie claims that something like a fifth of all Minnesota adults lacks an ID for one reason or another. (He’s referring to driver’s licenses. Which is its own bit of misleading rhetoric; the DFL is trying to convince the not-so-savvy – the DFL base, really – that voting would require some ID above and beyond a driver’s license). The numbers are BS, of course.
Still, I’m wondering if I am alone among all of the people in Minnesota who has to have an ID to drive a car, open a savings account, enroll my kids in school, buy a firearm or ammunition, buy alcohol, open a safe deposit box, get medical treatment, pick up a prescription, turn oneself in for an outstanding warrant, adopt a pet, get your pet out of the pound, pay a traffic ticket, use a credit card, write a check, rent an apartment, carry out any business with the government, withdraw money from the bank, deposit money in the bank, cash a paycheck, get a passport, start a new job, enroll for a class, get on a plane, buy a lottery ticket, get a hotel room, get a marriage license, rent a car, file a court action, apply for a loan, close a mortgage, collect bail paid for erroneous arrests, enroll your kid in daycare or buy Sudafed to want to say shut up, quit your whining and get a free freaking ID?
And do Mark Ritchie’s legions of phantom, ID-less Minnesotans – 20% of the adult voting population – somehow get around in this state without driving, saving, spending, schooling, getting jobs, dealing with banks or governments, marrying, traveling, sueing, borrowing, buying or sniffling?
How do they do that?
March 22nd, 2012 at 12:42 pm
It does make one wonder, if the Secretary of State is claiming that one in five Minnesotans are unable to prove their identity, why he personally wouldn’t be leading the charge to ensure accurate elections.
March 22nd, 2012 at 2:23 pm
I just went down to my local PD to renew my “Permit to Purchase” this afternoon (an annual event, btw). I received a 3-page document where I had to provide all the basic identification information, where I’ve lived for the last 10 years and one-page worth of responding to questions of whether or not I’ve ever been arrrested, charged with domestic violence, or treated for mental illness, etc. in order to exercise my constitutional right.
Compared to all that, showing a photo ID to exercise another right doesn’t seem to onerous. Could we add a mental health question to the voting registration?
March 22nd, 2012 at 3:31 pm
The reason they are throwing a hissy fit is because they know it probably makes it twice as hard to win elections for them when they don’t have the dead or illegal voting for them. As a sidenote, if my Dad’s name is still on the voting roll come November I am going to raise hell
March 22nd, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Well apparently, because 20% of Minnesota adults are illegal immigrants. Which doesn’t seem very far fetched if you’ve driven down East Lake Street in the last decade.
March 22nd, 2012 at 7:32 pm
I wonder if there’s anything in the Minnesota State Constitution that tells us how to recall the Secretary of State. I think he’s as dishonest and corrupt as can be.
March 22nd, 2012 at 8:15 pm
The reason 20% of the voters don’t have photo ID is probably because they don’t exist, certainly not on this earth. I mean, how many precincts is “James T. Kirk” registered in?
March 22nd, 2012 at 11:50 pm
Ritchie and his ilk piss me off to no end. When some slacker is given a 6-pack and a pack of Marlboro’s to get in a van and have some DFL activist “vouch” for them as a means of illegally fueling their own selfish desires, they are negating my vote. The reason we ought to all be indignant is because we know we are INFORMED voters. We count our vote as sacred. The DFL considers it a chit that can be purchased on the street. They also know voter ID would put handcuffs on their larceny.
March 24th, 2012 at 8:05 am
I did a bit of research & found what I believe is the basis of Commisar Ritchie’s 20% with no ID. What the Dear Commisar means is 20% of potential DFL voters lack ID, Further study reveals that indeed incarceated felons, inmates of mental illness treatment facilities, the inhabitants of cemetaries, and a slew of fictional charachters do actually and tragically lack any form of identification. This disadvantaged group is commonly know as the DFL Voting Base. That they will be denied their rights is a tragedy beyond comprehension
My Heart Bleeds!