r/johnoliver • u/DiscoLego • 1d ago
Question / Discussion I'm all for a Voter ID during an election. But it has to be done right. And I'm not paying for it.
Getting a reasonably real looking fake ID requires nothing more than going to your local county fair.
There, I said it!
Showing any reasonably real looking ID (that could easily be fake) to an old retiree voting center volunteer to put down the cookie another old retiree volunteer baked, glance at, look at you, then glance at again, then shrug and give you your ballot is obviously not going to be acceptable.
Passports and especially birth certificates are forgeable. My actual original birth certificate is typed and has my baby foot print on it for God's sake!
Both sides will claim fraud, or that the old retiree volunteer eating cookies is really a mastermind of voter conspiracy, the butterscotch candy in his pocket, an obvious USB drive, and then ruin whatever's left of what he thought was a patriotic life.
The problem isn't easily forged identification. The problem is who is going to pay for every voter in the country to get a proper state of the art counterfeit-proof ID, that has a scannable barcode, a chip, a hologram, and anything else.
But there's more.
Who is going to pay for a device/devices at each voting center, that have to be hack proof, encrypted, and then wirelessly and securely connected in real time, to a central database, that is hack proof, encrypted, and secure, that confirms identity, citizenship, and voter registration?
But there's more.
Who is going to pay for the new procedures, the army of trainers to go across the country, to train the old retiree cookie baking volunteers at each voting center, on how to use the devices correctly, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, what to do in the event of a device not working, the wireless connection failure, or the connection to the central database is lost?
But there's more.
Who is going to pay for the ongoing maintenance (adding new citizens and babies, removing dead citizens, updating addresses, updating photos, updaying voter registration) of the National Database of Identification, Citizenship, and Voter Registration?
I'm ALL IN FAVOR of a National Database of Identification, Citizenship, and Voter Registration.
I'm ALL IN FAVOR of a National counterfeit-proof ID.
I'm ALL IN FAVOR of checking a National counterfeit-proof ID, wirelessly, against a National Database of Identification, Citizenship, and Voter Registration, during an election.
However, I'm NOT GOING TO PAY FOR IT.
I'm also NOT GOING TO HAVE THE STATES, OR RAISE THE NATIONAL DEBT, TO PAY FOR IT.
If we want this, it must be paid for and done correctly. Either Trump or his Billionaire friends can pay for it in EVERY ELECTION out of their own pockets, or we can find the money in the existing federal government budget, and take it out of the existing taxes that we're arguably already paying too much of.
