Supreme Court VRA Decision

[agzg]

Originally Posted by Kevin

My 80+ and even 90+ year old grandmothers both had no trouble voting.

Hell, my 80+ year old maternal grandmother even continued to vote while in the throes of dementia.

These weren't the question. My question was do they have birth certificates with their married names on them? About half of married women do not. Because birth certificate is not something one "has" to change with marriage, like a driver's license, etc.

Originally Posted by Kevin

That said, I'm just not overly impressed with this argument. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to obtain a birth certificate. You go down to the Department of Vital Statistics, take your little number and wait for it, pay the fee and they print it for you. In Oklahoma, a bank or utility bill will work as ID to obtain a birth certificate. These are things responsible adults keep around. If you lose it, no matter what your age, that's not something responsible adults do. If you are ever not able to prove who you say you are, you've placed yourself in a potentially pretty bad situation.

So, you need to buy a birth certificate, to buy a state ID. And this doesn't discourage low income populations how?

I'm sure responsible adults never lose things. They also never have fires or floods.

[Psi U MC Vito]

Originally Posted by agzg

These weren't the question. My question was do they have birth certificates with their married names on them? About half of married women do not. Because birth certificate is not something one "has" to change with marriage, like a driver's license, etc.



So, you need to buy a birth certificate, to buy a state ID. And this doesn't discourage low income populations how?

I'm sure responsible adults never lose things. They also never have fires or floods.

Not to mention the time that is required to go get it. I had to replace my birth certificate which required me to make a trip to the state capital in the middle of the day. I had the time to do so because I was a student, but if I had a 9-5 I would have been in trouble. Oh and the reason I had to replace it? Somebody in the county office of vital stats was selling fakes.

[TonyB06]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

Not to mention the time that is required to go get it. I had to replace my birth certificate which required me to make a trip to the state capital in the middle of the day.

Really??!? I totally disagree with Kevin's assertions, but I had to replace my birth certificate about a year ago to get a passport, and just went to country records department and had a duplicate made. Are you sure you were required to go to the state capital or perhaps that's just the well-meaning, but gasoline-guzzling information you received?

[AOE-7]

Originally Posted by agzg

These weren't the question. My question was do they have birth certificates with their married names on them? About half of married women do not. Because birth certificate is not something one "has" to change with marriage, like a driver's license, etc.



So, you need to buy a birth certificate, to buy a state ID. And this doesn't discourage low income populations how?

I'm sure responsible adults never lose things. They also never have fires or floods.

I have never ever heard of a birth certificate with a married name on it. It's a birth certificate - your information as of the time you were born. Your marriage license accompanies that.

I've used my birth certificate, with my marriage license (as Kevin stated, 2 things that responsible adults have and don't lose, and register at courthouses or whatever in case your personal one should ever be dstroyed in a fire or whatever) to obtain a drivers license with my married name on it, and then I was able to use that to obtain a passport.

There are so many different forms of id available, that I just dont see how not bothering to get one is really an excuse. Doesn't have to be a drivers license. Just an ID. Something maybe the public libraries should be able to issue, or something similar...

[agzg]

Originally Posted by AOE-7

I have never ever heard of a birth certificate with a married name on it. It's a birth certificate - your information as of the time you were born. Your marriage license accompanies that.

I've used my birth certificate, with my marriage license (as Kevin stated, 2 things that responsible adults have and don't lose, and register at courthouses or whatever in case your personal one should ever be dstroyed in a fire or whatever) to obtain a drivers license with my married name on it, and then I was able to use that to obtain a passport.

There are so many different forms of id available, that I just dont see how not bothering to get one is really an excuse. Doesn't have to be a drivers license. Just an ID. Something maybe the public libraries should be able to issue, or something similar...

From the study the DeltaBetaBaby linked:

Documentation proving citizenship often does not reflect the citizen's current name. Many of those who possess ready documentation of their citizenship do not have documentation that reflects their current name. For example, survey results show that only 48% of voting-age women with ready access to their U.S. birth certificates have a birth certificate with current legal name, and only 66% of voting age women with ready access to any proof of citizenship have a document with current legal name. Using 2000 census citizen voting-age population data, this means that as many as 32 million voting-age women may have available only proof of citizenship documents that do not reflect their current name.

This means that, say, you need to get an ID card, because you don't have a driver's license, but you lost your birth certificate and marriage license in a fire or flood (it's more than likely you'd lose both together). So then you have to go get a birth certificate, a copy of your marriage license, etc. etc. etc, THEN go get a state ID - this is getting nutty.

And it's not like it's that unlikely - lots of people lost everything in the floods that happened in the midwest this year. And in the tornadoes in Oklahoma. And in Hurricane Sandy. And the wildfires in Colorado.

For folks that are already disadvantaged (don't have a vehicle, the DMV isn't located in a place that's readily accessible by public transportation, the elderly are in homes where they don't do this type of transport but do transport to vote, the public transportation system in a city is unreliable) - these all add up to greater barriers to voting than you or I have. And let's remember that driving is a privilege while voting is a right.