Thursday, January 12, 2012
http://in.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20110503_0000311.SIN.htm/qx
worley v wadell is an indiana case about the way the bmv won't let people get ID.
there's a long thread going on at the election law list about voter ID.
here are some of my notes; i may or may not end up posting to that thread.
Issues re Indiana voter ID
Nuns on the run:
Two things we can learn from the nun episode: the statutory procedures were not followed. The nuns were supposed to be given provisional ballots, but instead they were just turned away. Even the election officials find voter id too complex to comply with correctly. This has happened to me as well; being turned away instead of given a provisional ballot.
Secondly, according to one of the above posts, other nuns were discouraged from trying to vote, after the first group was turned away. So there are circles of disenfranchisement, a) legitimate voters whose provisional votes aren’t counted. 1000 of these in 2008; I have no more recent data b) legitimate voters who were unlawfully turned away when trying to vote. c) people discouraged from trying to vote because they know it would be a futile gesture since their votes won’t be counted.
Identity:
Need driver’s license to get birth cert. Need birth certificate to get driver’s license. I’m a disorganized person. If I had a document 27 years ago, that doesn’t mean I can find it now.
Name is not the same ; in re hauptly. In “In re Hauptly”, the Indiana Supreme Court said that your name is whatever you say it is. This was a 1972 case about a woman who did not change her name when she married. My name, Robbin George Stewart, is not the same as on my birth certificate, and there is no longer any existing paperwork documenting the change of name (in the 1970s),and the BMV gives me a hard time about this anytime I need to renew or replace my license.
Residence: I get all my mail at my po box.
Trevor asks: Many states do not accept po boxes or rfd addresses (postal addresses) as a "residence address", requiring instead the physical locator (401 Elm street). This is a problem in rural sections of the country, where people will not have any biills etc showing their physical residence address, because all mail goes to a postal address. Is this the case in indiana?
Yes; I am registered at my domicile but get no mail there. I’m not sure how the RR situation is handled.
Social security number: I’ve never applied for one. Some people don’t have them, and voting should not be made contingent on getting them. The one I use is one my father got for me without consulting me, and I haven’t figured out how to give it back.
I have one friend who is not willing to register to vote in Indiana. At the time he made that decision, social security numbers were part of the public voter record, and he didn’t want his privacy intruded on.
For $5000, I can get you a copy of the Indiana voters database. It’s a few years out of date, but it does have the social security numbers. An updated list is an extra $5K. Postage and handling extra.
Process: when I could not get my license renewed, I was denied a hearing by the bmv after I made a written request for one. I suspect that this violates procedural due process.
Disclosure: Scott F. Bieniek correctly points out that voter ID is a form of disclosure; red tape inserted into the elections process to deter participation. If you object to voter ID, try to use this to find common ground with us in the “anti-reform” faction. Disclosure regimes such as voter ID impose barriers to political participation. And these barriers can be relatively higher for the poor and powerless, in a way that distorts democratic process.
worley v wadell is an indiana case about the way the bmv won't let people get ID.
there's a long thread going on at the election law list about voter ID.
here are some of my notes; i may or may not end up posting to that thread.
Issues re Indiana voter ID
Nuns on the run:
Two things we can learn from the nun episode: the statutory procedures were not followed. The nuns were supposed to be given provisional ballots, but instead they were just turned away. Even the election officials find voter id too complex to comply with correctly. This has happened to me as well; being turned away instead of given a provisional ballot.
Secondly, according to one of the above posts, other nuns were discouraged from trying to vote, after the first group was turned away. So there are circles of disenfranchisement, a) legitimate voters whose provisional votes aren’t counted. 1000 of these in 2008; I have no more recent data b) legitimate voters who were unlawfully turned away when trying to vote. c) people discouraged from trying to vote because they know it would be a futile gesture since their votes won’t be counted.
Identity:
Need driver’s license to get birth cert. Need birth certificate to get driver’s license. I’m a disorganized person. If I had a document 27 years ago, that doesn’t mean I can find it now.
Name is not the same ; in re hauptly. In “In re Hauptly”, the Indiana Supreme Court said that your name is whatever you say it is. This was a 1972 case about a woman who did not change her name when she married. My name, Robbin George Stewart, is not the same as on my birth certificate, and there is no longer any existing paperwork documenting the change of name (in the 1970s),and the BMV gives me a hard time about this anytime I need to renew or replace my license.
Residence: I get all my mail at my po box.
Trevor asks: Many states do not accept po boxes or rfd addresses (postal addresses) as a "residence address", requiring instead the physical locator (401 Elm street). This is a problem in rural sections of the country, where people will not have any biills etc showing their physical residence address, because all mail goes to a postal address. Is this the case in indiana?
Yes; I am registered at my domicile but get no mail there. I’m not sure how the RR situation is handled.
Social security number: I’ve never applied for one. Some people don’t have them, and voting should not be made contingent on getting them. The one I use is one my father got for me without consulting me, and I haven’t figured out how to give it back.
I have one friend who is not willing to register to vote in Indiana. At the time he made that decision, social security numbers were part of the public voter record, and he didn’t want his privacy intruded on.
For $5000, I can get you a copy of the Indiana voters database. It’s a few years out of date, but it does have the social security numbers. An updated list is an extra $5K. Postage and handling extra.
Process: when I could not get my license renewed, I was denied a hearing by the bmv after I made a written request for one. I suspect that this violates procedural due process.
Disclosure: Scott F. Bieniek correctly points out that voter ID is a form of disclosure; red tape inserted into the elections process to deter participation. If you object to voter ID, try to use this to find common ground with us in the “anti-reform” faction. Disclosure regimes such as voter ID impose barriers to political participation. And these barriers can be relatively higher for the poor and powerless, in a way that distorts democratic process.
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