Sarah Silverman has a few thoughts on voter ID laws that she would like to share with you.
Minnesota voters will be voting on a constitutional amendment to require voter identification. The latest polling indicates that it may pass. I may be preaching to the choir, but please vote NO on this amendment. It has nothing to do with voter fraud and everything to do with disenfranchising citizens. Don’t fall for false analogies. Voting is not like renting a car. Voting is a fundamental right. We Americans aren’t guaranteed much, but we do make a point of proclaiming that every citizen has equal access to the ballot box.
People have died to safeguard the right to vote. Soldiers and students and housewives. When we start restricting the right to vote, we shit on every ideal for which they fought and died. Don’t fall for the scare tactics of politicians struggling to remain in power. Don’t bring Jim Crow to Minnesota.
I do regularly find it frustrating to explain to people online what exactly a fundamental right is, how voting is a fundamental right, and why that means it’s not like any of the other things people use in their analogies.
It’s also frustrating how this isn’t a bigger issue. I heard an interview with one of the drafters of the Pennsylvania law on NPR and when he was pressed the only way he could justify it, and that famous line about the law delivering Pennsylvania to Romney, was to claim that Obama stole the state’s electoral votes in 2008 through this kind of voter fraud. You’d think that claim would be bigger news.
Anyway, I really responded because I’m interested in something you probably know more about than I do. What’s going on with Wisconsin’s Senate race? From the polls I’ve been watching the race has swung roughly 15 points in the past week. Thompson was leading by 5.5, when suddenly Baldwin was leading by 9.5. I have no idea what happened to result in this startling change. I’ve only heard about that homophobic Thompson ad about Baldwin dancing on stage at a Pride Parade, but that can’t possibly have made that much of a difference, could it? Is it the wide scale rejection of Ryan and the revelation of just how big a liar he is, resulting in the steep decline of anyone associated with him tangentially?