Politics
UN rights council delves into US voter I.D. laws
By Eric Shawn


The United Nations Human Rights Council is investigating the issue of American election laws at its gathering on minority rights in Geneva, Switzerland.. This, despite the fact that some members of the council have only in the past several years allowed women to vote, and one member, Saudi Arabia, still bars women from the voting booth completely.

Officials from the NAACP are presenting their case against U.S. voter ID laws, arguing to the international diplomats that the requirements disenfranchise voters and suppress the minority vote.

Eight states have passed voter ID laws in the past year, voter ID proposals are pending in 32 states and the Obama administration has recently moved to block South Carolina and Texas from enacting their voter ID measures.

"This really is a tactic that undercuts the growth of your democracy," said Hillary Shelton, the NAACP's senior vice president for advocacy, about voter photo ID requirements.

In a Fox News interview prior to his trip, Shelton said the message from the NAACP delegation to the Human Rights Council is that the photo ID law "undercuts the integrity of our government, if you allow it to happen. It's trickery, it's a sleight-of-hand. We're seeing it happen here and we don't want it to happen to you, and we are utilizing the U.N. as a tool to make sure that we are able to share that with those countries all over the world."

The United Nations has no legal jurisdiction over the American electoral system, which Shelton acknowledges. Asked whether he thinks that the U.N. should be involved in domestic American laws, he answered, "No, not specifically. The U.N. should certainly be involved in sharing a best practice for the world."

"We're the greatest country on the face of the earth, but we can be better still," he said.

The NAACP had scheduled two American citizens to present their claims at the U.N. panel who, the group says, worry they will be disenfranchised by the requirement to present a photo ID to vote. The civil rights group says one, Kemba Smith Pradia, was convicted of a drug-related offense and is concerned that if she moves back to Virginia from the Midwest, state law will block her voting because of her record, even though she was granted clemency by President Bill Clinton.

A second American, Austin Alex, is a Texas Christian University student. The NAACP says he is worried that he will be barred from voting because he only holds an out-of-state driver's license and a non-government student ID, not a Texas issued photo ID.

But supporters of photo ID requirements argue that states provide such identifications for free, and in some cases, voters can cast provisional or absentee ballots that do not even require a photo ID. The NAACP disputes those claims.

In 2008, the United States Supreme Court upheld the voter photo ID law enacted in Indiana.

The U.N. Human Rights Council members include communist China and Cuba. In addition, several Arab nations are on the council that have only granted the right to vote to women in recent years, such as Kuwait in 2005 and Qatar in 2003. Women in the Republic of Moldova have had the right to vote for less than 20 years.

Council member Saudi Arabia announced six months ago that women will be granted the right to vote, but that change does not go into effect until 2015.

"The idea that this is a human rights abuse is ridiculous," said Hans von Spakovsky, a voter fraud expert and senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, in Washington, D.C.

"The UN allowing this to take place under their roof makes them, unfortunately, complicit in what really is a publicity stunt by the NAACP, and I think it wastes their time, when they should be going after real and sustained human rights abuses like the things going on in horrible places, like North Korea."

Spakovsky, who supports voter photo ID laws, says it is a hypocritical and meaningless waste of time to present a case against American electoral laws at the UN forum.

"I think the leadership of the NAACP is, quite frankly, doing a disservice to American citizens and the democracy that we have here, by going abroad to the Human Rights Council, which is filled with dictatorships and other countries that actually and really abuse human rights."

He called the council's weighing of U.S. laws "an insult to the United States that the NAACP thinks we should be getting advice from those kinds of countries, which are not democracies, on how to administer elections in this country.”

But Shelton argues that the NAACP's presence at the Geneva conference can teach other nations how to improve their electoral systems.

"We can learn a lot from those who haven't gone through as much as we have," he said.

"Everyone has a different struggle, but there's lessons to learn from whoever we come across ... but there's also some things I think we can still help teach the rest of the world."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/14/un-delves-into-us-voter-id-laws/#ixzz1p7dl9IeL

Andrew1975 wrote:I saw this a while ago. The argument is that its a racially motivated law because 25% of black people don't have IDs.

Let me highlight that 25% of black people dont have ID's!!!!

WTF. How do you do anything in the US without an ID? GO get an ID lazy.

Now some argue that some blacks were born in the US where they could not legally get birth certificates. I understand this and programs can be put in place but really that has to be at the most 1% of the black population, what is with the other 24%?

Ahtman wrote:

Andrew1975 wrote:I saw this a while ago. The argument is that its a racially motivated law because 25% of black people don't have IDs.

Let me highlight that 25% of black people dont have ID's!!!!

WTF. How do you do anything in the US without an ID? GO get an ID lazy.

Now some argue that some blacks were born in the US where they could not legally get birth certificates. I understand this and programs can be put in place but really that has to be at the most 1% of the black population, what is with the other 24%?

Can you link to an article becuase I can't believe that is right. You sure it wasn't 25% don't have a Driver's License? Or maybe it was taking into account all ages and thus included children who wouldn't have an ID yet. One quarter of the African-American population just doesn't sound right at all.

here were a few stemming from one article but I couldn't find a reputable source to back up the claim in the articles. They just sort of say it and hope that no one asks where the number came from I guess.

Hulksmash wrote:If you're to lazy to get an ID then you don't deserve to vote.

Sorry but for gods sake it's $10 in California for state ID. I'm not sure how much one in Minnesota costs but seriously, if it's not worth it to you to vote and have a proper ID then that's your issue. Not mine.

Azure wrote:Does it really matter anyhow? Electoral college is what really decides who gets voted in, even if the popular vote is against it. Happened three times already

The impact of ID requirements is even greater for the elderly, students, people with disabilities, low-income individuals, and people of color. Thirty-six percent of Georgians over 75 do not have a driver’s license. Fewer than 3 percent of Wisconsin students have driver’s licenses listing their current address. The same study found that African Americans have driver’s licenses at half the rate of whites, and the disparity increases among younger voters; only 22% of black men aged 18-24 had a valid driver’s license. Not only are minority voters less likely to possess photo ID, but they are also more likely than white voters to be selectively asked for ID at the polls. For example, in New York City, which has no ID requirement, a study showed that poll workers illegally asked one in six Asian Americans for ID at the polls, while white voters were permitted to vote without showing ID.

Ahtman wrote:I found that same article but when I went to the Brennan Center for Justice i was not able to find any specific study that showed that 25% of African-Americans don't have ID. I only found a few websties that carried the story. None of them reference a specific study, just the BCfJ. Now they have a lot of articles and statistics about Voter ID so it may be buried in there. It seems more likely though that it is supposed to be that only 25% of all African Americans in states with certain strict Voter ID laws or legislation in consideration. You may have an ID but an old one that doesn't have a picture, or it may have a picture but not updated address. I did find this though.

The impact of ID requirements is even greater for the elderly, students, people with disabilities, low-income individuals, and people of color. Thirty-six percent of Georgians over 75 do not have a driver’s license. Fewer than 3 percent of Wisconsin students have driver’s licenses listing their current address. The same study found that African Americans have driver’s licenses at half the rate of whites, and the disparity increases among younger voters; only 22% of black men aged 18-24 had a valid driver’s license. Not only are minority voters less likely to possess photo ID, but they are also more likely than white voters to be selectively asked for ID at the polls. For example, in New York City, which has no ID requirement, a study showed that poll workers illegally asked one in six Asian Americans for ID at the polls, while white voters were permitted to vote without showing ID.

Poppabear wrote:Well actually. The U.N is not a joke, there the only damn thing keeping the states in check from going completely hape on the world. Well, that and China ;D.

Poppabear wrote:Well actually. The U.N is not a joke, there the only damn thing keeping the states in check from going completely hape on the world. Well, that and China ;D.

Hulksmash wrote:If you're to lazy to get an ID then you don't deserve to vote.

Sorry but for gods sake it's $10 in California for state ID. I'm not sure how much one in Minnesota costs but seriously, if it's not worth it to you to vote and have a proper ID then that's your issue. Not mine.

Hazardous Harry wrote:On one hand the idea of Saudi Arabia lecturing the US on how to hold fair elections is ridiculous, on the other this would be a perfect chance for the US to argue their side of the story.

AustonT wrote:Here's and Idea UN: feth off. And while we're at if GTFO out of our country. Find another country to base your headquarters in. Maybe one of those bastions of freedom in Africa will take you.

Andrew1975 wrote:I saw this a while ago. The argument is that its a racially motivated law because 25% of black people don't have IDs.

Let me highlight that 25% of black people dont have ID's!!!!

WTF. How do you do anything in the US without an ID? GO get an ID lazy.

Now some argue that some blacks were born in the US where they could not legally get birth certificates. I understand this and programs can be put in place but really that has to be at the most 1% of the black population, what is with the other 24%?

Hulksmash wrote:If you're to lazy to get an ID then you don't deserve to vote.

Sorry but for gods sake it's $10 in California for state ID. I'm not sure how much one in Minnesota costs but seriously, if it's not worth it to you to vote and have a proper ID then that's your issue. Not mine.

Mannahnin wrote:The bit Ahtman quoted demonstrates two things.

1. That there are significant numbers of people entitled to vote who don't normally walk around with the kind of ID required by many of these new laws. Particularly the elderly, out of state college students, and poor people, particularly minorities.

2. That in practice polling officials do ask racial minorities for ID more often, thus creating a bit of a race barrier at the polls.

This whole voter ID thing is dumb. It's not as if there's a significant amount of voter fraud anyway. I like being able to walk into my neighborhood polling station and give my name. Does anyone else remember what Heinlein wrote in Time Enough For Love about how when a society gets to the point where you need to carry photo ID at all times, you can tell that society is getting choked with beauracracy and it's getting to me time to move somewhere else?

Mannahnin wrote:It is dumb, unless there is some real evidence of significant amounts of voter fraud. So far I haven't seen anything convincing.

Kilkrazy wrote:http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/03/12/3804285/hasen-texas-voter-id-law-may-be.html