This political season, my favorite lawn sign says "Vote No Twice." Our Republican-led legislature, in addition to asking us to amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage, wants us to compel all who present themselves at the polls to flash a government ID, thereby stamping out an epidemic of voter impersonation and other fraudulent shenanigans.
Since illegal voters have less of an impact on election results than faulty voting machinery, about which the Rs are entirely sanguine, one wonders about the real reason for their enthusiasm for Voter ID. But you don't have to wear out your brain wondering. If you keep away from the polls those who don't have an ID, at least not one showing their current address, you will disenfranchise a lot of people--college students, nursing home residents, the very poor--who tend to vote Democratic. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, you have the Rs corporate sponsors spending billions exercising, er, their freedom of speech in a way that is unavailable to--people who don't have IDs.
This seems to be the Rs entire response to the country's changing demographics. It's so lame that occasionally they cannot even themselves keep up the pretense, as in the case of the Pennsylvania lawmaker who crowed that the Keystone state's Voter ID laws would deliver its electoral votes to Mitt Romney. Turns out Pennsylvania is not close enough for that, but it's refreshing to hear a Republican pronounce out loud the real reason. The official reason, concerning the necessity of securing our polling places from thousands of phantom cheaters, is too easy to skewer. Jon Stewart recently asked, "What next? Leashes for unicorns?"
And, while you're voting No on that one, say No to limiting marital woe to heterosexuals. Vote No Twice.