Kinja reply list

Read More
SqarrEllie Shechet
4/25/16 4:39pm
How many fucking times does a GOPer have to say flat-out that voter ID laws exist solely to restrict people from voting?
Reply
- Read More
  Slay.douché - (dreams to be a puppy)Sqarr
  4/25/16 4:44pm
  How long until the pushback is LOUD ENOUGH that, as a country *we refuse to accept this racist, partisan bullshit* anymore?
  Reply
- Read More
  SqarrSlay.douché - (dreams to be a puppy)
  4/25/16 4:46pm
  Also an excellent question.
  Reply
Read More
ad infinitumEllie Shechet
4/25/16 5:25pm
It took me two years, hundreds of dollars and god knows how many hours to obtain a copy of my brother’s birth certificate, and he was born in 1981.

There were definitely some mitigating circumstances — he was born in a state where neither of us live and we have no family, my mother didn’t apply for a birth certificate until he was 2, and she legally changed his last name in another state and it was never reported to his birth state — but still. Two years. Hundreds of dollars. Hours (sometimes two or three for one call) calling different agencies and waiting on hold, getting documents notarized, waiting in line at the post office, etc.

It’s relatively easy for many people to obtain their birth certificates. It’s not remotely easy for many others, and for some, it’s not actually possible.
Reply
- Read More
  many bells down wears many stupid hatsad infinitum
  4/25/16 5:33pm
  We didn’t have my husband’s certificate of birth abroad until just a few years ago. He was born in Guatemala City just after the 1976 earthquake. Issuing birth certificates was not a high priority. It took his mom about a month of playing phone tag with the embassy to finally get it. I have no idea what she was doing for ID before that, but he had a SSN and a driver’s license and everything.
  Reply
- Read More
  ihatebrasad infinitum
  4/25/16 5:53pm
  I had my son at home with a licensed midwife and let me tell you what a fucking shit show nightmare it was when we tried to get his birth certificate and with the IRS when we tried to get our earned income credit at tax time. It took almost a year of fighting to get his birth certificate and then the IRS made us fight with them for SEVEN years on the earned income credit because they wanted us to prove he was really my husband’s child even though he is listed on his birth certificate (finally) and my husband’s address on his drivers license and his address on every single piece of mail he gets from the VA and social security and his taxes is the SAME EXACT address on our son’s birth certificate at “place of birth.” As if I just randomly went to some dude’s house and had a baby on his bed so he could claim him on his taxes.
  
  It is total bullshit what they put some folks through to obtain ID documents in this country.
  Reply
Read More
JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes hereEllie Shechet
4/25/16 4:41pm
We will never see two more genuinely joyful people in the White house again.
Reply
- Read More
  HesterMofetJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
  4/25/16 4:42pm
  Not this election cycle, we won’t. That’s for damn sure.
  Reply
Read More
Slay.douché - (dreams to be a puppy)Ellie Shechet
4/25/16 4:53pm
Maybe liberal states should make it nearly impossible for any fundamentalist christians to receive photo identification?
Reply
- Read More
  Cynthia GraceSlay.douché - (dreams to be a puppy)
  4/25/16 8:22pm
  This is actually a huge problem for people who leave fundamentalist communities. The parents keep documentation hostage so ex-fundamentalists have no way to prove their identity. In many cases it was a home birth and there's no birth certificate.
  Reply
- Read More
  prollynotCynthia Grace
  4/25/16 9:51pm
  Yes I was going to say this. I actually believe that the voter disenfranchisement problem on a large level is actually more a symptom of a swollen bureaucracy that runs after random solutions for every perceived fear moreso than intent on the Republicans’ side to steal the election. Then, locally, I do think that the Republican party learns to play with these laws in a way that benefit their election. So it’s a combo of things, but not just about Republicans stealing elections. Sometimes these policies affect Republicans. For example, this also affects poor rural southern white people who are far less likely to keep up to date IDs and who generally get them much later in life and let them expire much sooner. Those people vote Republican, so it makes no sense for the Republicans to disenfranchise them. Likewise with fundamentalist Christians in cults / communes as you mention who may have no official record of their birth- and in some cases no official record of their parent's marriage or home or school or anything.
  Reply
Read More
KeevaSEllie Shechet
4/25/16 4:45pm
Republicans must be ecstatic with this bit of news. It proves their theory that ID laws affect precisely those they want them to. Poor, minority citizens who though no fault of their own may not have or be able to access a birth certificate.

GOP Motto of the Day: “Well, that’s one less vote for Hillary.”
Reply
- Read More
  Margaret SangerKeevaS
  4/25/16 7:30pm
  Don’t forget elderly, too. Those old people are big into voter fraud!
  Reply
Read More
GrannyShifterEllie Shechet
4/25/16 4:55pm
McLaurin can vote without an ID in D.C., where she lives, but expressed anger at the idea that others in states with more restrictive voter ID laws have been stripped of that right.

Well, she can still buy a gun in most places, because freedom doesn’t have to make sense.
Reply
Read More
prollynotEllie Shechet
4/25/16 9:56pm
I expect this issue is going to take care of itself soon, actually. The airport already has fast check in lanes if you apply and get a background check- you can go through without speaking to a person. It's all digital and they scan your passport, however they also scan your eyes and fingers. I think the addition of the passport is probably just because we are shifting technologies right now. I bet in a short time, all it's going to take to get an ID is a retina scan, not a paper saying you were born at a certain time.
Reply
- Read More
  AnnieW50prollynot
  4/27/16 12:22am
  Yeah right, the party that is CLOSING polling locations in poor areas is all of a sudden going to spend money on the the technology to to allow people to vote that might vote against them. LOL
  Reply
- Read More
  prollynotAnnieW50
  4/27/16 12:41am
  No. It has nothing to do with the parties or with elections, and I didn’t mean “suddenly” like the next election. This technology is already there, and it’s already being used for immigration and travel. You can’t go many places these days without your eyes scanned, for example, and your passport is already electronically chipped. This is just the beginning. Before long, this will be the norm for all identification- biometrics. They’ve already made this tech for smart phones- they can scan your eyes. Then it will naturally follow from there to be used in voting in place of IDs or registration cards. Everyone has eyeballs. I shouldn’t have made it sound like it was going to happen really soon- my point was just that this is going to take care of itself in the future. We are a few general elections away from that time, and who knows what the Republican party will look like by then. They are currently imploding.
  Reply
Read More
prollynotEllie Shechet
4/25/16 6:23pm
A few years back- during the 12 election- I was working in a café. The guy who washes dishes there was an early 20s white dude, working class, no car. We live in a rural area. He had no ID. He’d had no reason to ever get one. He didn’t drive, he had a social security card and was born in the US so had right to work, though he did all his work for cash- mowing lawns, washing dishes, etc. Presumably he had a birth certificate somewhere. So he could get an ID and probably will one day. But there had never been any reason for him to do so. I'm just saying that there really is an underclass here; there really are people who do not live a life that is connected to the Internet, that involves getting loans, that includes regular employment and bank accounts and that sort of thing. I'm sure this guy will eventually get an ID. There are people who never leave their neighborhood. I'm sure the guy I know will eventually get his ID, I just think it's worth remembering that not everyone lives the same way or knows the same things.
Reply
- Read More
  Konbini-kunprollynot
  4/26/16 2:36am
  It’s illegal to work under the table in most states. Just FYI.
  Reply
- Read More
  prollynotKonbini-kun
  4/26/16 9:08am
  Everyone knows that. Obviously you aren’t giving me information that I don’t know, so it’s not FYI. What’s your point? It is also reality that small businesses, especially in rural areas, frequently pay people to do jobs without hiring them. Local economies are real things, FYI. Are you trying to say that anyone who breaks the law should not be allowed to vote? I guess we should stop all speeders from voting too. Everyone who smokes pot in a state where it's not yet legal, they can't vote either. People who drive beyond the time their stickers expire, not going to vote. Etc?
  Reply
Read More
BakoGirl13Ellie Shechet
4/25/16 5:49pm
Where I live, you can obtain your parent’s Birth Certificate pretty easy (show ID that is). Is this not possible in South Carolina? If she has one that is.
Reply
- Read More
  YoSupBakoGirl13
  4/25/16 6:19pm
  You realize that the reason why she needs the birth certificate is so that she can get an ID, right? That’s kind of the point of the article.
  Reply
- Read More
  justimhoBakoGirl13
  4/25/16 7:24pm
  Is getting a birth certificate from the 1800's somehow easier than getting one from 1909?
  Reply
Read More
jonbenet_chikfilaEllie Shechet
4/25/16 5:27pm
Ok, but how did she get into the White House?

(All jokes aside, someone get the woman an ID. She’s seen and done more than most of us could dream of.)
Reply