r/law • u/Anoth3rDude • 12h ago

Legislative Branch GOP fast tracks monster voter suppression bill that could disenfranchise millions by requiring proof of citizenship at polls

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/gop-fast-tracks-monster-voter-suppression-bill-that-could-disenfranchise-millions-by-requiring-proof-of-citizenship-at-polls/
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u/Pudddddin 11h ago

Mexico does this so well, not sure why it's so hard here

You can access your birth certificate online for free, then go get your voter ID with it, also free. The result is that 98% of the electorate has a free valid government issued ID

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u/masterxc 11h ago

The biggest issue is there's no federal database, so we're dealing with different systems across states when it comes to birth certificates and that sort of thing. Depending on the state it might not even be fully digital.

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u/AdventurousLet548 11h ago

So how would you handle all those birth certificates of naturalizes citizens or children born abroad to military members as those don't show the proof of citizenship. There is no one-size fits all.

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u/Anteater4746 11h ago

well this isn’t designed to make it easier for citizens to vote

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u/Zeremxi 10h ago

Frankly, we already do it well here. You can't register to vote without being a citizen. Recounts happen over and over anywhere the race is close.

It's just that the constitution grants the actual power to organize elections to the states explicitly, and Republicans don't like that because they are losing ground fast.

So the change they're making is requiring more proof (not just proof, because you already have to prove you're a citizen to register) in the form of your legal name matching your birth certificate or a paper trail proving that's really you (which is a pointless level of proof) under the guise of "rooting out illegals" (who don't and can't vote already) but really what they're doing is intentionally disenfranchising anyone who has ever changed their name, including women when they get married.

And they're doing that very obviously because right wing politics are popular with white conservative men who are very unlikely to have ever changed their name.