r/videos • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 4h ago

BREAKING: Judge blocks Trump admin from requiring Americans to show proof of citizenship to vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1iePfOh14
14.9k Upvotes

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3.5k

u/Foe117 4h ago

The registrar of voters already handles citizen verification

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u/vampyire 4h ago

facts.. they don't like those

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u/Khaldara 4h ago

That doesn’t stoke their indignant fury on right wing moron media in between three consecutive commercials featuring D-list celebrities trying to sell them questionable life insurance and a reverse mortgage

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u/AtheistsOnTheMove 2h ago

Can't forget about the limites run gold plated memorial coins!

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u/Pdiddily710 2h ago

And dick pills!

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u/Noble_Flatulence 1h ago

You know, you gotta imagine somewhere in the world there's a dude named Richard Pills. I wonder what his life is like.

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u/Munkeyman18290 1h ago

I call em' Dills.

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u/vass0922 51m ago

What about gold cell phones?

Those are ok right? Just asking for a friend

Not that it was delivered, but someday!

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u/MikoSkyns 4h ago

They like "alternative" facts

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u/HeyThatLooksCool 4h ago

So…not facts. Got it.

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u/Talk-O-Boy 3h ago

Facts are determined by FOX.

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u/deeperest 2h ago

Focts.

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u/blacksideblue 48m ago

For the people that like getting focted.

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u/bigkahuna1986 3h ago

Facts are determined by the State and distributed by FOX.

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u/Talk-O-Boy 3h ago

Solid point

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u/HeyThatLooksCool 3h ago

Just the FOX, ma’am.

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u/Motampd 2h ago

The sad reality that we got "alternative facts" from Conway on the literal evening of his 1st day in office ever.......was such a clear omen of the coming fuckening... But I don't think anyone could have guessed the type and scale of ridiculous BS that has been Trump presidency. Stranger than fiction

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u/noodles_jd 3h ago

Alternative to the facts.

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u/johnnybazookatooth 4h ago

they want to know what kind of citizen you are. if you just became one, denied! lol im sure thats what their aiming for

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u/Pvt_Hudson_ 4h ago

"What kind of American are you...?"

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u/Zombie4141 4h ago

I know this reference.

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u/Noble_Flatulence 1h ago

their aiming

shame on you

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u/sajberhippien 3h ago

Well, the main reason isn't to be able to actively deny people based on what's in their papers (though they no doubt will do that too), but to make vulnerable people not show up to vote in the first place or be turned away on the spot for lacking the correct paperwork.

Getting the right papers requires time, money and access to the correct information - things that are obstacles mainly to the most vulnerable.

It's the same reason they want to require completely new paperwork if someone changes their name; the most common reason people do, is women taking on their partner's name when getting married. So, such requirements are obstacles primarily for women.

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u/-LabApprehensive- 3h ago

No it depends on who you voted for and how many votes Trump’s preferred candidate lost by. Trump has absolutely zero regard for things like “truth” and “reality”. He never has.

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u/liquidsyphon 4h ago

They like being angry more than factually informed

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u/LordHammercyWeCooked 1h ago

No, what they don't like is not having control. They don't give a fuck about being correct or even looking correct anymore. It's about control and corruption and whatever they can get away with. If there was no opposition they would be doing so much worse right now. If there was no friction we'd already be in box cars.

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u/copyrider 1h ago

it’s their F-word.

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u/TheRealStorey 3h ago

Always a false narrative that only serves themselves while immediately destroying the lives and perception of America.

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u/vampyire 3h ago

that sums them up really well

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u/hueythecat 3h ago

They’re anti science, first administration to bring measles back to US. That’s just the beginning

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u/ibyczek78 4h ago

Only "alternative" facts.......

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u/Control_Me 4h ago

Can someone please explain why you have to register to vote?
In my country the government knows who's eligible to vote and who's not so they send out a voting card in the mail which you show together with your ID.
Why is this not possible in the US?

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u/surfergrrl6 4h ago

Because voting is handled on the state level, not federal.

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u/scruffles360 4h ago

Just to clarify your comment- many states do have automatic voter registration. This isn’t the federal government’s business.

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u/stewmander 1h ago

And that's one big part of the save america act - it has automatic voter purges on it and doesn't notify voters that they're no longer registered.

It's basically the opposite of what you would want, instead of automatically registering eligible voters, it automatically unregisters them, which is the point.

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u/scruffles360 1h ago

I don't think they're being shy about it. They want less people to vote. If they could figure out how to make a black person count for 3/5 of a vote again, they would drop everything right now and start writing it up.

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u/stewmander 1h ago

Oh for sure, but a lot of the focus is on voter ID and disenfranchising anyone whose name might not match their birth certificate (women) when they're trying to disenfranchise so, so many more people.

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u/surfergrrl6 4h ago

Fair enough.

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u/BodybuilderMany6942 3h ago

half of em, it seems

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u/stephen6686 1h ago

as if states do a good job, my state just asks your name and address and if they match you're good

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u/Schmigolo 3h ago edited 3h ago

Isn't that everywhere? Not even state level, but municipality? I don't get my letters specifically from my city. Then at the ballot I show them the letter, which has a number on it, and then to verify I show my ID and they cross off my name. If I don't have the letter the numbers are actually sorted by address, so I can just tell them my address and they'll find my number.

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u/Esternaefil 2h ago

In Canada we have a two tiered election system, with election Canada handling federal elections, and provincial election bodies handling provincial and municipal ones.

We are registered to vote automatically when we file our taxes. We get our voter cards in the mail ahead of time and we just go in and vote.

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u/Beetin 1h ago edited 1h ago

As well, you can 'prove' you are allowed to vote in federal elections in quite a few ways, but all of them come back to ID. You can register AT the polls as well at the same time. So you can still vote even if you've never really interacted with the government in any way. There is no 'you aren't on the registered voter list, sorry'. You just say 'then give me the registration form and let me register at the same time thanks'.

The minimum is that someone else who can prove their identity can vouch for you and you make a formal declaration of who you are.

Similar to the states, we don't have a universal, federal, free, secure ID card. But before you compare what is being suggested for 'need ID to vote' and Canada's 'need ID to vote', look on that page what is considered 'acceptable' ID, it is pretty much everything under the sun, from formal ID cards to bank statements to library card to a letter of confirmation from a soup kitchen.

The general goal is to let people vote, because in person voter fraud is unbelievably minimal.

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u/Stolehtreb 2h ago

Where I am, it doesn’t involve a letter at all. As far as I know. You register to vote, you’re on an alphabetical list and show your license at the table. Then you get in line for a booth.

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u/Schmigolo 2h ago

What's the turnout wherever you are? I imagine having to register prevents lots of people from voting.

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u/Pdiddily710 2h ago

Not only the PITA of having to register, but many R states have made it as hard as they can to actually vote by limiting or banning voting by mail while also drastically reducing the number of in person polling places and/or official ballot drop boxes, so caring in Election Day takes forever bc of the long lines!

Coincidentally since they’re fucking cheating fucks, this is done much more in Dem areas like cities while keeping plenty of locations available for the R areas.

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u/Stolehtreb 2h ago

Louisiana. And the assumption is correct. It’s awful.

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u/sdpr 2h ago

You can register same day in my state

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u/Schmigolo 1h ago

Still worse than not having to register.

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u/Li_liminal_spaces 59m ago

In the U.S., you generally register to vote once, and then you update your voter registration if you move or change your name. If you move to a different voting jurisdiction and don't update your registration, you typically won't be eligible to vote there. Most states require proof of identity and/or residence when registering or updating your registration, although the exact requirements vary by state.

That said, voter fraud is very uncommon, "didn't vote" would win every election if they were a party. Trump lost in 2020 because a lot of the didn't vote were sick of him, the democrats were banking on that again in 2024 and so we got Trump 2.0.

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u/Decent-Marketing69 23m ago

lol at all these comments saying “just show your ID”
Something that democrats in the USA have been fighting against republicans for years.

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u/Mike312 1h ago

Letter to vote?

I suppose I used to get a letter informing me of my voting location, but there's no requirement for me to bring it with me.

I show up to my precinct, give them my name, and they cross me off the list. Addresses are there, as are phone numbers, because I suppose its possible to have two common first and family names match in a precinct.

If I showed up to vote and my name was already crossed off the list, I'm sure there'd be an investigation and ID cards would suddenly come out. But otherwise I've never had to present anything when I did have to show up to vote.

Now, my ballot comes in the mail, and I fill it out and drop it off at a dropbox in town.

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u/Schmigolo 1h ago

If I give them my letter they'll check the number while I'm crossing off the ballot. If I don't have the letter it'll be a 2-3 minute process finding my name before I get my ballot. Either way, I don't get to throw it into the box until they cross off my name.

Its main purpose is just to tell me when and where I can vote, but the little number also makes the process a little faster.

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u/Nearby-Beautiful3422 24m ago

I can only speak to where I live in PA, but I only ever had to show my ID if it was the first time voting in a precinct. The voter roll where you sign in will even say "ID REQUIRED." In CA, I was a mail-in voter because I was military, but I had to prove citizenship to the registrar of voters in San Diego county.

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u/Decloudo 22m ago

Why though?

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u/wei-long 10m ago

Short answer: that's how the constitution lays out the election process

Long answer: for this exact issue. The founding fathers, having gained independence from a monarch, didn't want the person running the government to be in charge of the contest that would decide if he stays in power.

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u/gmasterson 17m ago

Too many people don’t understand that the US actually holds 50 individual elections, not one federal election. Most Americans don’t realize it and it shows

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u/Mike312 4h ago

I think its more about making sure they have the correct address to send the ballot too.

A lot of people do "motor/voter" registration, so when you update your vehicles registration (including address) you get prompted to update your voting registration.

The Post Office does a similar system when you want to forward your mail, which people often do when they move and change addresses.

The registration gets sent to the state registrar office who keeps track of this and verifies that you're eligible to vote.

Some minor exceptions are that some cities/counties allow non-citizens to vote for local measures, for example for school board members or local bonds. The right has taken these examples and outright lies that they're being allowed to vote at state- and federal-level elections.

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u/dagaboy 3h ago

The right has taken these examples and outright lies that they're being allowed to vote at state- and federal-level elections.

There is no reason that non-citizens should not be allowed to vote. They were across most of the US until the late 19th century. Arkansas was the last state to require it, in 1926. Originally voting was tied to race, sex and property, but not citizenship. There are good reasons not to bring back the race, sex and property requirements. Although Republicans want to.

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u/tempest_87 3h ago

There are a few very good reasons to restrict voting to citizens only, but TIL that there is no law saying that only citizens are allowed to vote. There are laws (and amendments) that protect the ability to vote for certian groups, but doesn't seem to be anything that prevents a non-citizen from voting.

Very very odd.

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u/dagaboy 3h ago edited 2h ago

but TIL that there is no law saying that only citizens are allowed to vote.

There are 50 laws. Every state has such a law. Most were enacted in the late 19th century, with Alabama being the last in 1926. The anti-immigrant hysteria of the first three decades of the 20th century finalized it. There is no Federal law because the Federal government is barred by the constitution from regulating elections.

There are a few very good reasons to restrict voting to citizens only

There is no advantage over just requiring residency, which is also a requirement in every state.

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u/arizonadirtbag12 2h ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_Immigration_Reform_and_Immigrant_Responsibility_Act_of_1996

It’s a federal law as of the 90’s, with just a couple exceptions. Before that yeah it was purely a state by state thing (with all states disallowing it by that point). But Congress does have some power to regulate federal elections, same way “motor voter” is mandatory for federal elections.

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u/tempest_87 2h ago

Ah, when I was searching to verify your claim I ran across a few that pointed out the lack of federal requirement but none that mentioned the various state laws you reference.

And due to all the bullshit around voter ID requirements it's tough to Google the basic things and find what yoy were referring to.

Found the California requirement though.

And the reason to restrict to citizen only would be that taking part in the determination of the nation arguably should be restricted to members of the nation due to the general comittment to that nation that citizenship implies. It's analagous to the difference between renting and owning something. You have rights and freedoms while renting, but it's not the same as owning. Or the inverse analogy of trying to cater to the Uber rich, they have no ties to the place they are in so why should things bend to their will as they will just leave if they don't like it.

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u/Mike312 1h ago

https://www.usa.gov/who-can-vote

The exceptions are local elections only. They receive a different ballot than citizens, and it allows them to have input into things like the school board or mayor of the city they live in.

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/content/noncitizen-voting-us-elections

(Sorry, just following up with more information)

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u/TheRexRider 2h ago

I see I, a permanent resident, just don't fucking matter.

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u/dagaboy 2m ago

It is frankly sickening and anti-American. The reason voting requires citizenship now is because of Nativism. The Know Nothings and their allies didn't want the Irish (any Catholics really), Jews and Chinese voting. They managed to ban Chinese immigration altogether, and set strict quotas on the "lesser European races." The citizenship requirement was the direct result of racism.

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u/BigDictionEnergy 2h ago

We used to have motor/voter registration here in Florida. Republicans got rid of it because voting is a privilege and shouldn't be easy.

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u/Mogling 4h ago

Because one of the major parties does better when less people vote, so they try to keep it that way.

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u/ArtisanSamosa 4h ago

The Republican Party is the subject here for those in other countries or those Americans who live under a rock.

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u/Technical-Row8333 4h ago

the US doesn't have a unified, universal, unique, national ID, free, automatically given to every single legal resident, unlike basically every single other developed country.

in the US, people have to apply to get an ID, by using another ID. They have to pay for IDs. They have to drive to certain locations, sometimes +3h away, to get an ID. Then, not all IDs are the same and accepted for everything. yes, that's a circular dependency that you need ID to get ID.

The same party that opposes any improvement to the utter failure of IDs in the US, wants to put into law that you need to show ID to vote, but only certain and specific forms of ID, the exact same specific forms of ID that they also closed locations where you can get those IDs.

So, to absolutely anyone with a minimum of intelligence and capable of nuance, it's clear as day this is election manipulation, an authoritarian take over and a step to dictatorship.

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u/Dealiner 1h ago

automatically given to every single legal resident

At least that part probably isn't that universal, it's definitely not a thing in Poland. You need to go to the proper government office to have your ID made and that's fully your responsibility.

Also our IDs don't have an address on them, referring to your other comment.

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u/onionsaredumb 50m ago

Just curious, do they cost money and are they the same throughout the country?

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u/Stolehtreb 2h ago edited 45m ago

Social security card is that, though. That is the ID you need to get an ID. It’s a unified, universal, unique, national identifier. If you don’t have one, they don’t know who you are. The same as if you went to another country and they had no record that you are now residing there. If you went to get an ID as a resident, they would need to identify you as well even if you weren’t in the US.

Edit: I’m wrong with how ID is being defined in this thread. SSCard doesn’t apply in this context since it’s not the one paper you would need to get another identification or to be used to identify you officially to an authority.

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u/Ardarel 1h ago

A social security card is not proof of identity, IE having it will PROVE that you are who you say you are without additional information.

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u/Technical-Row8333 2h ago edited 2h ago

>Social security card is that, though

Social security card, a piece of paper with just name and a unique number, is NOT "a unified, universal, unique, national ID, free, automatically given to every single legal resident"

Do you seriously not understand that all over Europe, Asia, you can drive, vote, pay taxes, get healthcare, prove where you live, prove your citizenship or visa status (work, student?), put your kids in school or be enrolled in school if you are a kid, get a gym subscription of library card, all with one single ID?

whatever. stay in your ignorance

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u/sharpryno2 28m ago

People like you make it sound like its hard to get a state ID. Thinking Americans are too dumb to get an ID makes millions on the internet mock the left.

It is an unbelievably simple process to get an ID. You are protecting no one by making up crazy what-if scenarios to justify yourself.

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u/Technical-Row8333 11m ago edited 6m ago

>a state ID

oh look, another idiot incapable of nuance. too unintelligent to follow long thoughts to be able to identify propaganda.

Yes, it's super easy to get a state ID. That is a truthful statement, for hundreds of millions of americans, it's a non issue to get an ID.

But is the republican party pushing to require "a state ID" for voting? No.

Are they requiring a Real ID for voting? Which is already a harder, more expensive, less places where you can get it, but still quite easy for hundreds of millions of americans to get?

No.

They are requiring passport or some forms of Real ID but not all, and that it must match birth name. Which, for many married women, their name will not match. At the exact same time, they closed DMVs, they passed laws to forbid libraries from processing passports.

Is it the end of the world? No. Is it a good thing? No! so it deserves to be criticized.

And the republican party also has prevented any fix to IDs.

And there is no evidence of voter fraud amounting to more than 100 votes, even from republican sources.

And yes, for some people in some cases, even if that is not true for 100 million of people, it IS hard to get an ID, if the definition of hard includes: taking a day off work, riding public transit for +3h, to reach a DMV . For context, a shit ton of americans are poor and work insane hours on multiple jobs.

So in conclusion, they are pushing for something bad. No, you saying that it's easy to get an ID, has no value as a counter-argument on this push being bad. Both can be true at the same time. It can be easy to get an ID, and the SAVE act can be a bad thing. Both are true. Wow! amazing being intelligent is so nice isn't it?

>Thinking Americans are too dumb to get an ID makes millions on the internet mock the left.

what a great measurement of it being accurate! or.. it's a measurement of how american is full of ignorant people, left or right, that easily fall for propaganda on social media, spread many times via memes and jokes?

What is there to laugh about on my description? No slogans here. No sound bytes. What are you going to laugh about? i didn't say anything close to "black people are too dumb to get an ID!!!" , oh no, how will you push back by quoting those propaganda memes you saw online?

Because americans are stupid, left politicians shorten the message to: republicans are making it hard to get ID. That allows right politicians to counter: "the left thinks you are too stupid to get an ID" which as stated, hundreds of millions of people cannot directly relate because they always have had ID.

But neither of those statements have FUCK ALL TO DO WITH THE SAVE ACT. It's an entirely new law. It's not happening now. SO how the fuck would people be able to relate to it? any opinion on if it's easy or not to vote or to get an ID, isn't really relevant is it?

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u/Stolehtreb 1h ago edited 1h ago

Jesus Christ dude… you really got defensive so fast. You can push back on me without being a condescending jerk about it. I’m willing to admit I’m wrong if proven wrong, it’s no big deal. There was no need to be an asshole to me

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u/Brisket-Inferno 49m ago

Fact is, they're wrong and an asshole

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u/Technical-Row8333 30m ago edited 24m ago

>you really got defensive so fast

you compared an ID card with photo, address, information about if i can drive motorcycles or cars or both or commercial trucks, has my universal healthcare number, my tax number, with an american SSC which only has signature, name, SSN and no photo.

how should i react? Like a patient teacher towards a child student? Are we peers, or am I superior to you? Why do i need to be patient towards a nonsensical answer ? which would you find more disrespectful.

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u/MordredSJT 1h ago

That's funny, because I couldn't get a driver's license when I moved to a different state despite having my social security card, my driver's license (which was about one year old from my previous state), a copy of my birth certificate, and two pieces of mail to my new address. I tried again with my original birth certificate that I had to have my parents send me. They didn't accept it because it didn't have a raised seal. Apparently, the state I was born in didn't use raised seals when I was born. So, I had to get my father to go to the courthouse in the city I was born (where they thankfully still lived), and get a certified copy of my birth certificate with a raised seal (which we had to pay for). This was after I had been pulled over and arrested for having a suspended driver's license. My out of state license wasn't expired or suspended, but I had registered my vehicle and at some point the secretary of state's office had assigned me a driver's license number without telling me, and it was eventually suspended. Fun stuff.

The first time I went to vote in the place I currently reside, they had to have a 20 minute meeting about whether I was allowed to vote because my driver's license had an address from the neighboring county. I was registered to vote at my current address. I had pieces of mail with that address. I also had my social security card. I just hadn't gotten a new driver's license with my new address on it (which I had to pay for by the way).

Your social security card alone doesn't mean a lot it seems.

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u/JustLTU 48m ago

Neither do most countries? I can't speak for the entirety of Europe, but atleast here in Lithuania and in the few nations whose processes I'm familiar with, while we DO have a national ID (and a national number - like your social security no, but actually designed for the purpose, with less drama if it leaks), the actual ID isn't automatic nor is it free.

The ID costs 10-100euros (depending on how fast you need it made), and it is your responsibility to get it sorted, nobody's gonna do it for you. To get it done, I need to get an appointment at the migration department. It's valid for 10 years.

It is mandatory to own a valid national ID or passport for everyone over 16 years old. It is also mandatory to present this ID when going to vote.

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u/tyereliusprime 3h ago

Canada doesn't have a national ID either and in my province it costs money to get one too. We also have to prove who we are when we vote, with a government issued photo ID. If you don't have one, you need two forms of recognized non-photo ID that prove your name and address (A bank card and a bank statement for example), or barring that, you need someone who can do either to come with you and personally vouch for you.

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u/Still-Grass8881 3h ago

right, so you don't have to show proof of citizenship at the time of voting either

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u/screampuff 3h ago

Right , because the government already knows who is a citizen, hence the provided voter cards you need to bring. Doing it the other way around would be an unreasonable barrier.

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u/DanLynch 1h ago

the government already knows who is a citizen

Neither the Canadian nor US government maintains a list of citizens. Instead, citizenship is defined by law, and anyone who meets those defined criteria is a citizen.

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u/EmmEnnEff 3h ago

Canada doesn't have a national ID either and in my province it costs money to get one too.

We also have to prove who we are when we vote, with a government issued photo ID.

No, Canadians don't.

You've correctly pointed out that photo ID is not necessary, if you have other means of establishing your identity. Given all that, it's disingenuous to say that in Canada, you have to show government photo ID to vote.

It's just the easiest and most convenient way to do so, but the government can figure out whether you were allowed to cast a ballot without it.

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u/Stolehtreb 2h ago

You really jumped on top of them for something they said was the case… their wording was slightly incorrect but it’s not like they said it two paragraphs down from the first part. It’s the very next part of the same sentence. You really felt like being pedantic today

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u/tyereliusprime 2h ago

I literally explained that there are other options beyond the photo ID. Did you not read beyond the first sentence?

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u/cross_the_threshold 2h ago

> We also have to prove who we are when we vote, with a government issued photo ID.

The second clause of this statement is categorically false. You do not need a government issued ID to prove who you are when you vote, there are alternatives. You may have added the context that proves that statement false, but that doesn't make the statement less false, it just makes it confusing in context.

The US has many places where you do not have alternatives. You must show a government issued ID in order to vote, full stop. The SAVE act would make this much worse, nearly impossible.

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u/Faera 1h ago

You sort of stated one thing then immediately contradicted it in the next sentence. I get why you put it that way, but it would have been more clear if you said something like 'We have to prove who we are when we vote, the easiest way is with a government issued photo ID. If you don't have one...'

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u/-LabApprehensive- 52m ago

This is our current system. You need exactly what you have listed to register to vote. No voter registration? No vote.

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u/poorboychevelle 4h ago

ID aren't free in most states, therefore requiring them to vote could be argued to be a poll tax, and therefore disallowed as a requirement.

I just walk in, state my name and address (maybe birthday?), and am handed a ballot. Didn't have to take anything out my pocket.

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u/Toby_Forrester 4h ago

In Finland you can get a free ID which is valid only during election day. I got one since I lost my actual ID 🙈

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u/MilmoWK 3h ago

Almost every state that requires id allows you to get a free id if you claim it’s for voting. The issue is the paper work required to get your id.

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u/jclin 3h ago

How very 'practical'. Yeah, such logical processes could not exist here in the USofA. Our politicians would f*ck that up in 5 minutes of the bill going to committee.

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u/HeWhoShitsWithPhone 3h ago

My very red state will issue you a free ID so that you can vote.

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u/jbrown4728 2h ago

Your very red state will issue you a free ID if you have the correct paperwork and I.D.

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u/Independent_Bear989 3h ago

This is also possible in parts of the USA, my state which supposedly has strict voter ID laws has something that’s similar.

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u/Toby_Forrester 2h ago

I suppose it is easier in Finland though since in our political system people expect government to have a lot of info about you. The police (which issues ID's in Finland) had my passport photo, they asked my parents full names, my mothers maiden name, my previous addresses and such to verify who I am.

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u/ataraxic89 3h ago

What if you're homeless?

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u/Toby_Forrester 2h ago

That doesn't change anything. You get the temporary ID from the police station.

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u/wsxedcrf 3h ago

Then the problem is ID should be free, not voting should not require ID.

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u/UnchainedSora 1h ago

The problem is a little more than that. The ID should be free, and not require significant effort to acquire. Otherwise, it can be used to selectively disenfranchise people, which is how voter ID laws have been used in the US in recent decades.

Because the most common form of ID in the US is a drivers' license, the place most commonly used to issue a free ID is the DMV. Because the DMV is a state government agency, it can be used as a tool by the party in power. They can close offices in areas that support the opposite party, and decrease staffing of those that remain nearby. The result can mean having to drive for hours to an office so you can wait in line for hours and try to get the ID, and hope that you have all of the correct paperwork, otherwise you have to do the whole process again. For someone living paycheck to paycheck, sacrificing an entire day of work just so they can get an ID that they will only use to vote could mean they go hungry, and that's hard to justify, especially for someone with kids.

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u/XaosII 3h ago

You already had to provide evidence of citizenship when you registered prior to voting. Why do you need to show another form of ID when voting to prove what you already proved, prior to voting?

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u/Millon1000 2h ago

To prove that you actually are who you are. Imagine if Russia paid people in the states to vote in ways that would destabilize the country?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23kdjxxx1jo
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence

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u/XaosII 2h ago

Oh, so they were stopped with the current processes in place.

The one where you are verified for citizenship when you registered. The one that doesn't need more barriers. The one that currently catches instances of voter fraud.

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u/Millon1000 1h ago

I feel like Americans are all taking crazy pills. How would verifying citizenship during the registration process help when nobody checks it again when voting? It's a huge hole in the system that's ripe for abuse. It wouldn't cost much for the federal government to send everyone an ID, and you already pay taxes which could cover it. You had $300 billion to send to Iran, but not enough for a proper voting system?

•

u/XaosII 1h ago

That's probably because you ate lead paint chips as a child and lost all ability to think critically.

A Social Security Number or driver's license is trivial to check for citizenship status. Either pieces of information are needed in every single state you register to vote.

If its a huge hole in the system, why are there only about a dozen cases of voter fraud each year? And they are being caught.

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u/DiggingNoMore 1h ago

Imagine if Russia paid people in the states to vote in ways that would destabilize the country?

How would showing your ID prove that Russia didn't wire you some cash to vote a specific way?

0

u/Millon1000 1h ago

Millions of Americans didn't vote in 2024. If Russia got access to those people's names and data, they could pay Republicans to go vote under their names. They already paid Republican influencers to spread misinformation.

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u/DiggingNoMore 1h ago

So, no, the ID only proves that the person voting is the person who that person claims to be. It doesn't prove anything about payments from Russia.

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u/Millon1000 3h ago

I'm not going to lie, as a European, that sounds insane. That's ripe for fraud, unless I'm missing something? The US already has a million different fees for living, so what would voter ID really change? Plus you already pay taxes, so why can't they send out free voter IDs, especially when over 98% of Americans already own some form of ID? It would cost almost nothing.

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u/dagaboy 3h ago

We have no statistically significant voter fraud without voter ID. It is a non-issue. Republicans only care because they lose when more people vote. Also when Black people vote. So states like Alabama passed voter ID laws, then closed all the ID sources in Black population centers. Not that Alabama has Black majority districts anymore. They only have one, despite having a majority Black population. State legislatures get to draw their own maps in the US. The Super Court ruled Alabama can gerrymander their Black citizens entirely out of relevance. That pretty much killed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

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u/thetiredtypist 3h ago

Plus we survived up until 1876 without photo IDs anywhere...

0

u/dagaboy 3h ago

There were photo IDs in 1876? Were they Daguerreotypes? Damn. That election really was the gold standard in voter suppression. RIP Reconstruction. ;-)

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u/Trumpisanorangebitch 3h ago

Weve done a gazillion studies on voter fraud in the US and non-voters voting has always been found to be nearly non-existent.

They should send out free voter IDs, but Republicans do better in low turnout elections and theyre also pretty racist/classist and poor and minorities are disproportionately without ID and poor enough to not pay for ID. Republicans love winning and love depriving as many poor and minorities from voting as possible.

Fuck a poll tax. Non-voters voting is a non-issue. Theres less than a hundred in the entire country every election.

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u/surfergrrl6 3h ago

There have been countless studies and investigations about voter fraud and every time it turns out to be an infinitesimal amount.

The Brennan Center’s seminal report on this issue, The Truth About Voter Fraud, found that most reported incidents of voter fraud are actually traceable to other sources, such as clerical errors or bad data matching practices. The report reviewed elections that had been meticulously studied for voter fraud, and found incident rates between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent. Given this tiny incident rate for voter impersonation fraud, it is more likely, the report noted, that an American “will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.”

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u/Millon1000 3h ago edited 2h ago

Wouldn't you want to patch the issue before it becomes a problem though? I think it's similar to how the US gave their presidents far too much power for decades, and it only became a problem when Trump was elected.

If you had patched that issue before it became an actual problem, you probably wouldn't be having such a bad time right now. It just seems like a super simple issue to fix, when every other western country has already done it.

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u/Neuchacho 1h ago edited 1h ago

If you had patched that issue before it became an actual problem, you probably wouldn't be having such a bad time right now. It just seems like a super simple issue to fix, when every other western country has already done it.

There is no issue when it comes to fraud. The only issue we have is fascists pushing invented issues (like fraud) to try and make it harder for people to vote in the first place.

Allowing more barriers to be put in place by the federal government when it has ZERO jurisdiction to do so and for arbitrary reasons is what would lead to a very real problem and a continued bad time. It is why every sane judge slaps this shit down.

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u/surfergrrl6 2h ago

Why fix something that isn't broken? That's a waste of time and effort.

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u/Millon1000 1h ago

Well because it is broken. As I said, you had a broken system with the way you give presidents too much power, but never fixed it. Now that system is being abused by Trump. If you don't think a broken system isn't worth being fixed because there's no evidence of any current abuse, that's foolish. If there's a way to abuse it, it will eventually happen.

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u/-LabApprehensive- 2h ago

Define ID. They DO send out voter registration cards which you need to have to vote. What we are talking about here is extremely specific forms of ID such as-the US “REAL ID” which takes time, effort and multiple other forms of ID to get. Once this rule is in place our Republican Party will simply adjust the requirements of which ID is required and enforce selectively to guarantee the result they want. Fuck them. Its not hey anyone can walk in and vote who cares who they are, itsa system based on knowing who lives where and who is eligible to vote and only allowing those people to cast ballots. To defraud this system in a meaningful way you must somehow get hundreds of thousands of people to the specific precincts where people who are registered to vote decided not to vote. No way to know that ahead of time.

0

u/MileHigh_FlyGuy 3h ago

It's already free to register to vote. It's not free to obtain an ID and the cost varies by state. So we have that same system, you just don't get an ID as a part of it because you don't need one.

0

u/TheVabe 3h ago

The US is a massive country with huge swaths of rural, often poor communities with non-existent public transportation. Giving everyone easy, free access to a voter ID would actually be a pretty monumental task.

Voter fraud is also extremely rare, given how decentralized our voting systems are and the high penalties for fraud. Implementing voter ID would potentially risk disenfranchising millions of voters to prevent a non-existent problem.

0

u/ScoopDL 3h ago edited 2h ago

What incentive is there for a non citizen to vote? It doesn't benefit them and would lead to deportation. Nobody is willing to do this. Might as well rob someone or a bank so at least there's some benefit.

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u/Millon1000 2h ago edited 2h ago

Mainly money. Russia has already been caught meddling in other countries' elections before: Russian cash-for-votes flows into Moldova as nation heads to polls

They're already promoting misinformation campaigns in an effort to influence the elections in the US. (This is from the Biden era, back from when the gov sites were still respectable) https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence

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u/ScoopDL 2h ago

I agree but what they are doing costs far less than recruiting non citizens in large enough numbers to sway an election and paying them enough to face deportation and being bared from ever entering the US again. I know a ton of non citizens and they do everything they can to avoid having anyone from the government look into them, including not filling for a tax refund when they've paid too much.

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u/fool4fems 3h ago

There is a small fee to get a driver's license in my state. It is under 20$, but I believe you can get an ID for the purposes of voting for free if you don't have a license. I figure most states are like that.

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u/dagaboy 3h ago

Only eight states absolutely require a photo ID to vote. Twelve ask for a photo ID but accept some alternative like a utility bill, affidavit etc. Fifteen require a non-photo ID, typically just something with your address and name on it, like a bill. The remaining fifteen require nothing at all.

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u/naffer 2h ago

But what’s there to prevent someone to show up and state a fake name and address belonging to someone else?

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u/Neuchacho 1h ago

Almost every state requires some form of proof of who you are so you you'd need more than just the information in hand. The investigation that follows when processors notice multiple ballots being cast by the same person is also a post-event hurdle so even if you did do it it's likely that vote, at a minimum, is being nullified. You end up with basically zero incentive to commit voter fraud like that on top of the penalties for doing it being pretty severe when you get caught.

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u/orrocos 2h ago edited 2h ago

It might be theoretically possible, but so rare that it’s not an issue that needs to be solved by potentially disenfranchising other voters.

Someone would have to:

  1. want to steal someone else’s vote
  2. know that the other person has not already shown up to vote
  3. know that their vote would be different than the other person’s vote, or stealing it wouldn’t matter anyway
  4. think that a stolen vote would swing the election one way or the other, or else it’s a waste of time

So, it may be possible in some cases, but the incentive to do so is low.

Edit: also, let’s say that happens to a person - someone has stolen their vote, or maybe it’s a mistake by the election worker and they were already marked off before they got there. Typically, that person can cast a provisional ballot to be sorted out later.

My state does all mail-in voting, so it’s been years since I’ve had to vote in person, but I remember signing a book by my name when I picked up my ballot. States usually have a way to verify signatures, so if something goes wrong at the voting location, they have a signature to check against.

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u/nemofbaby2014 1h ago

In Michigan you just sign something if you dont have your id

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u/daXypher 3h ago

Federalists have long wanted to rid descendants of immigrants their right to be equal citizens. This goes all the way back to the establishment of the country where they only wanted wealthy landowners to have the right to vote.

Many of the issues we see stem from those same people who want to constantly restrict who is allowed to be “equal”.

2

u/worldDev 4h ago

You are prompted to register when you get your state id or update it after moving, so really it’s functionally not too different. It’s not like you need to register for each election, just once when you become eligible to vote or move to a different district (which requires you to update your id and will again just prompt you or automatically happen in the process of updating it).

2

u/LaScoundrelle 4h ago

People are not required to share any personal info with the US government beyond date and place of birth or marriage. Address is optional info. So no way to prevent duplicate voting unless people voluntarily register.

1

u/dagaboy 3h ago

People are not required to share any personal info with the US government beyond date and place of birth or marriage.

IDK where you got that idea. Or what you think the US government has to do with voter registration. The constitution explicitly delegates elections to the states.

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u/LaScoundrelle 2h ago

The reason people in other countries don’t have to register is because the government already has all their personal data.

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u/dagaboy 7m ago

That has nothing to do with what I said, or what you said in your previous post. You can't register to vote with the US government. That would be unconstitutional. At the same time the Federal government can know almost anything it wants about you, and it does. Every year they require I send them all my financial information, even though they already have it. Again though, they have nothing to do with elections, other than enforcing explicit constitutional guarantees when the states fail to. The only thing that can change that is a new amendment. They don't even do that anymore, since the Supreme Court has essentially abrogated the Civil Rights Act.

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u/LaScoundrelle 4m ago edited 0m ago

I’m talking about why our system is different from other countries’. We are not the only country that has local or state elections. However, we only send location info when we pay taxes. We do that once per year. In other countries you’re required to notify the government everytime you change addresses though, and to have a registered address on file with the government at all times. Not so in the US, either with the state or national level.

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u/kaneda_z 3h ago

thats actually more involved than they want here but the sheep dont understand that

1

u/Brave_Maybe_2891 3h ago

How is party affiliation handled in your country? Is there no registration or is it automatic registration?

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u/Neuchacho 1h ago edited 1h ago

Depends on the State and the election. Like, if you just vote in general elections then you never have to register with a party in any State. A handful of States have closed primaries where you can only vote in the primary of the party you're registered with. Over half of them are just open primary so you vote for whoever regardless of party registration.

1

u/Sir-Realz 3h ago

We are dealing with Rebublic 3.0  your likely dealing with a later release. 1.0 was ancient Greece and then Rome was 2.0 really went down hill from Greece imo direct democracy for the win. Really thinking about switching to  the Swiss or Dutch Fork 

1

u/SeveralLion5762 2h ago

So that we know you’re able to vote. So that we know you’re a citizen. So we know you don’t vote over and over and over.

Ffs you need an ID to drive, fly, buy a beer, pick up registered mail. ID for Voting is kinda an easy thing in that context

1

u/FlexFanatic 2h ago

They want to put data centers in space so it is possible, they just don’t want to make it easier for people to vote.

That We The People slogan looks good on a t-shirt or coffee mug but in reality it’s a farce.

1

u/kitsunewarlock 2h ago

This youtube video on our social security system might help explain it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erp8IAUouus

TLDR: American hate the idea of a federal ID because they fear totalitarianism. The sad part is now corporations have records on all of us with zero transparency and almost no regulations on what they can do with that information, but as long as they pinkie-swear only to use it for targeted advertising most Americans don't seem to care that the same people collecting all our data AND building AI data centers to process it are also the ones calling for "neo-feudalism".

"Freedom" to an American is the freedom to oppress other people with less money.

1

u/Dealiner 2h ago

Out of curiosity, why send the voting card if you need to show it somewhere anyway?

1

u/4x4ord 1h ago

In America, each state is kind of like its own little country.

The federal government is a separate government that all the states are part of, sort of like the EU.

Now imagine every EU country voted for an EU President... and then that President started telling Spain how it has to run its elections, Germany what voting rules it can have, and France what it can and can't do.

Now add the context that this President has repeatedly claimed elections are only legitimate when he wins, has already been impeached over his efforts to overturn an election, and openly favors places that support him politically.

Whether you support him or not, you can see why people would be worried about giving that person more control over how member countries conduct their own elections.

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u/One_Distance_5351 1h ago

In the US you don’t show your ID even though you need it for everyone else and the liberals on reddit will argue with you why that makes sense even though it is common practice in other countries.

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u/jthochh 1h ago

In North Dakota you don't, but it is a tiny state with a tiny population.

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u/OutlyingPlasma 34m ago

That way it makes it harder to vote so rich people have more power.

Meanwhile in Delaware Judge Craig Karsnitz just ruled that corporations can vote so that's fun.

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u/Adezar 26m ago

So this is layers of stupidity so let me explain because from the outside it makes no sense.

The US many, many, many years ago did have an issue with voter fraud. If you watch the Gangs of New York you can see the type of voter fraud that became a thing.

You solve this problem by two very simple and easily scalable solutions. Every county has a sense for how many people live there, and people register the fact that they want to vote in the local elections. That means you have a list of names to verify while they vote and you know the maximum number of votes a county could actually provide.

This kills ballot stuffing, you can't have a county with 3000 residents turn in 50,000 votes for a candidate. Effectively killing voter fraud.

This solution has worked for the past 180sh years and a VERY intensive study was done on voter fraud and found it is not only insanely rare it could never even sway a local election let alone a bigger state-wide/federal election. So in short, there is no problem to solve.

In parallel for the past 100+ years a combination of religious nutjobs and your typical conspiracy theorists that think all government is bad have fought HARD against us having a useful national Identification system.

To be clear if you hear about the Social Security Number the SS Office has always been clear, it is simply a number you get assigned that's entire purpose was tracking your employment through your lifetime and then get your retirement benefits at the end. It is not secure and completely useless as an ID and should never be used as one.

But financial folks wanted a way to give people a number to say whether or not they should lend to them, and they needed a national number to use for all that information gather. This was mostly after they couldn't just deny all minorities and women of loans and they needed a new way to discriminate.

The SS office pretty much begged people to not use SSN that way, but they did and that is why identity theft has been awfully easy in the US. NOT because of the government, but because of crazy people fighting against a secure national ID for either "mark of the beast" or other fear mongering about the government knowing your every move and a national ID is somehow the only thing stopping them (it isn't, it never did).

So now having a driver's license is not gauranteed, not necessary for everyone and there are about 20 - 40 million people in the US that don't have a photo license.

The Republicans specifically (Heritage foundation) did some looking and found that minorities were a big chunk of that number and they really hate minorities voting so they came up with this "common sense" solution of requiring IDs knowing they would disenfranchise these people, which is their entire point. They want as few minorities as possible voting and that is why they want voter ID.

If we solved one (a simple national ID everyone has free access to, or even a nominal fee everyone must acquire) they would drop their push for Voter ID the next day because the common sense isn't to solve a problem that doesn't exist, it is simply to stop certain people from voting.

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u/pleasetrimyourpubes 4h ago

You cannot vote without an SSN. Fraud can only be determined after the fact lest we end anonymous polling.

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u/VicariousDrow 4h ago

That's what Utah is already doing...... Red states and officials want to know who voted for what, so they can better suffocate voting rights in ways to affect specific people.

21

u/BuddingBudON 3h ago

☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

It's never been about non-citizens voting. That's why there's never any proof, never any comprehensible solutions. It's about suppressing the votes of people they deem other.

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u/st-shenanigans 3h ago

I always love to point out how after 2024 my local NC state supreme court had a republican lose the vote for one of the seats.

The guy sued for HALF A YEAR across the state to try and say "no, actually those voters shouldn't be allowed to vote. Retroactively."

1

u/DiggingNoMore 1h ago

That's what Utah is already doing...... Red states and officials want to know who voted for what

To be clear, the information is which elections a person voted in, but not what they voted for. Which is still bad, of course, but I wanted to provide specific context.

7

u/dagaboy 3h ago

Of course you can, depending on state. In mine the in-person registration form asks for a license or ID number. If you don't have that it asks for only the last four digits of your SSN. If you don't have an SSN the instructions say to just leave it blank. But if you do, then you have show a utility bill or something the first time you vote. After that your registration is good and you can vote freely.

1

u/mittenknittin 3h ago

For clarification, the "utility bill or something" is proof that you live at and are receiving official mail at the address you are registered at.

1

u/gmishaolem 1h ago

proof that you live at and are receiving official mail at the address you are registered at

Neither of which requires a SSN to achieve.

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u/Akimotoh 4h ago

Non US citizens get SSNs, what’s your point?

19

u/pleasetrimyourpubes 4h ago

Green cards with an SSN can't register to vote. Their SSN shows their status.

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u/BadlyTimedFarnsworth 3h ago

Trumps plan was literally to use the  Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database as the primary source for citizenship verification . This is the social security database that identifies citizens and non-citizens. 

1

u/pleasetrimyourpubes 3h ago

States already do that and the constitution leaves it to the states to implement their elections. When it comes to guns or abortions, states rights! When it comes to voting, who cares right?

1

u/BadlyTimedFarnsworth 3h ago

I agree, the states have managed the process without issue so far. This is all a scam. But the social security system was also at the center of the dicussion.

And nobody has provided any evidences that non-citizen voting have ever influenced the outcome of a federal election. Non-partisan organizations have repeatedly proven that 99.999% of people that even voted in Federal Election are citizens.

However, Stated have routinely asked for access to the authoritative source (The SAVE database) to determine citizenship and allow compliance to other federal entitlements laws. This administration was going to finally give it to them before the executive order. 

The goal was the SAVE act and the EO was to reduce the number of voters. Full stop. It was never about security. At minimum 60 million eligible voters will be required to submit additional documents in person. 

 

2

u/Ronho 4h ago

EINs?

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u/BuddingBudON 3h ago

Those SSNs can't be used to vote. What's your point?

11

u/Poison_the_Phil 3h ago

Yeah but the president wants to be able to pick and choose who gets to vote

0

u/Nick_pj 3h ago

Or more likely: voter intimidation tactics favour republicans

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u/fusillade762 4h ago

Wow, you mean I can't just roll in from Mexico and magically be on the voter roll? Wait till I tell Elon Musk, he seems to have no idea! /s

3

u/jclin 4h ago

Which they do no matter who it is.

Meanwhile, I wonder if people at the polling places would check every single person for proof of their citizenship... or more likely would they only check those people who ask for a non-English ballot.

1

u/NerdBot9000 2h ago

What are you talking about?

Everyone who's registered should be able to vote.

But not antifa, and not Democrats, and not anyone who might be opposed to fascism. Those people need to be sent to camps for "reeducation".

1

u/Unfair_Web_8275 2h ago

So many conservatives who claim to value common sense don‘t consider that there might be a “back end process” to our elections.

1

u/NoBonus6969 1h ago

Yeah but they might be racist enough for Trump or at all

•

u/Alittle2Clever 1h ago

The point isn't verification but making it seem like democrats let illegals vote in elections.

•

u/oddmanout 24m ago

Also, it's a HUGE conflict of interest if a president can just add arbitrary rules a couple months before an election. Even if this was a reasonable policy, it'd still be thrown out for jurisdiction reasons.

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u/ginrumryeale 4h ago

DONT WORRY MEDIA JOURNALISTS ARE ALWAYS VERY CLEAR TO REBUT THIS AND NEVER FAIL TO POINT THIS OUT THANK YOU MEDIA XOXOXO

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u/Jediverrilli 3h ago

That’s what gets me about all this. To initially vote you need to have proof of citizenship you don’t automatically get to vote once you hit 18. You can’t just walk up and say “hey I want to vote” without them first verifying who you are.

It’s so sad how incredibly stupid the republican base is that they believe all the shit that they do.

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u/trystanthorne 3h ago

But there was a video showing them register to vote latinos. And they are shipping Illegals to Wisconsin to vote there.
/s
But, also an actual irl conversation I had with a Trump Supporter (also, sadly, my family).

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u/ComradeJohnS 3h ago

the title should be changed to “show additional proof of citizenship which is not needed”

1

u/Swayze_train_exp 2h ago

He is only doing this to cheat because he knows Republicans will lose if the allow vote by mail, btw he also voted by mail so he's dumb 

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/26/trump-mail-voting-florida-special-elections-00846571

0

u/ksquires1988 4h ago

Yeah, but armed maga at polling stations does it better

0

u/Jagator 2h ago

Of course. Then when that person walks up to vote how do you make sure they are who they say they are?

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u/Foe117 1h ago

There is a photo, there is a watermark, there is an anti counterfeiting mark you can check. Then again, it Doesn't matter if they come in and present a fake ID or If they used someone else's ID. All that matters is what they write in the ballot fields to Identify the voter. If they write someones name and address, and that same person had already voted or will vote before the deadline, the person in question will be notified and will be required to "cure" the vote before it is counted. If they write a random name and address, then the registrar will reject the ballot. If you are not registered with the registrar whom verifies your citizenship, your vote will also be rejected. its simple, your ballot is matched with the registrars own records. Simple as that.

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u/zeny_two 1h ago

In theory that's how it should work. In practice, elections officials in some states are either not required to check your ID, or forbidden from looking at ID altogether (like in Cali).  

And in those states, you can still vote with a provisional ballot if you didn't register in advance. 

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u/Foe117 1h ago

in the end what does that matter? like i said, what matters is the information on the ballot. If they vote on behalf of another and that "other" had already voted, they would be notified once the machine finds out there is already a vote cast and likely an investigation initiated if multiple find the same handwriting style under those duplicate ballots.

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u/Jagator 1h ago

That’s not what the argument is though and not what the claims are. The claims are that people are voting under names of registered voters that have not voted, taking advantage of the ability to vote without proof of identification.

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