Re:A used voting machine from the 2016 election
by snowwrestler on Saturday July 21, 2018 @10:21AM
(#17582073)
If you would like to take a systems design approach to looking at the U.S. federal election system, then you need to consider the costs of voter ID laws, not just the benefits. Otherwise you're not actually taking a "systems design" approach.
Voter ID laws will help prevent people impersonating one another and stealing each other's votes. But they also prevent legitimate voters from casting votes, if they don't satisfy the voter ID requirement. If the latter effect is larger than the former effect, your voter ID law has introduced a net negative impact on the U.S. election system.
Because the goal of an election system is to accurately count legitimate votes, not just to not count illegitimate votes.
> It just seems like if we have a goal of removing questions about election integrity, we should go the whole way.
Election integrity is also compromised if citizens are not permitted to vote.
If you'd like to better understand the opposition to voter ID laws, Google can do a lot for you. The ACLU is not a bad place to start, though:
Voter ID laws will help prevent people impersonating one another and stealing each other's votes. But they also prevent legitimate voters from casting votes, if they don't satisfy the voter ID requirement. If the latter effect is larger than the former effect, your voter ID law has introduced a net negative impact on the U.S. election system.
Because the goal of an election system is to accurately count legitimate votes, not just to not count illegitimate votes.
> It just seems like if we have a goal of removing questions about election integrity, we should go the whole way.
Election integrity is also compromised if citizens are not permitted to vote.
If you'd like to better understand the opposition to voter ID laws, Google can do a lot for you. The ACLU is not a bad place to start, though:
https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-voter-id-legislation-fact-...