News

I need that full release.

That's been their behavior continuously since the country's founding. This is nothing new.

I've been trying to float the idea of voters showing up to the polls armed. Everyone who has a firearm, carry it to vote. Not in a threatening manner, no waving them around, just... Everyone who has one is armed.

Here's the real problem: this law would require voters to identify themselves using a photo ID, and it has to be a specific kind of updated ID. Americans have been pushed over the last few years to convert their Driver's License to a "Real ID," which is a Divers License that has been verified with other documents, like a birth certificate or a passport.

If you are man, it is easy because presumably, you have had the same name since birth, so your Real ID Drivers License only requires your birth certificate.

But if you are a woman, and you are married, you probably changed your name to your husband's, so you need a marriage certificate to prove your name change. If you have been married and divorced, you may have to prove THAT name change with a birth certificate AND a marriage certificate AND divorce papers from the first marriage, then a marriage certificate from your second marriage. It can get complicated.

Then there is my wife's problem. As a man, I had no problem getting a Real ID, but my wife needed our marriage certificate. We were married in a Caribbean island over 30 years ago, and the marriage certificate has gone missing long ago. We have been requesting a replacement for over a decade, and have not been able to get one. It can't be done online, it has to be by mail. It is not too expensive, only about $10, but it's usually rejected for the wrong money. They always claim (when we hear any explanation at all) that we have sent the wrong form of payment, which they then keep. We've sent money orders, checks, cash, etc., and probably spent over $100, and still nothing.

So my wife can't get a Real ID because the country we got married in won't cooperate. I suspect our marriage license is lost, and they can't supply a copy. In any case, until we can get this straightened out, my wife has no valid ID, and can't vote under Trump's new law, and if she can't vote for this reason, there are many others on the same situation.

Also not that it matters anymore but the Supreme Court already ruled it unconstitutional a long time ago as it's a form of poll tax. Remember when Supreme Court decisions weren't just "whatever Trump wants today" and actually were based on the constitution? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

and if someone is making minimum wage or close to it they almost certainly aren’t getting paid time off, so now they have to come up with $130 for the fee and lose time off work.

A passport card is only $30 (plus the $10 or so dollars for the required photo), but everything else in your post is spot on.

It's curious why they would want to implement this because although it affects poor people, it would probably also disproportionately affect poor Republicans.

Many voters in states like Mississippi/Arkansas do not have passports because they are both poor and have no intention to travel internationally so don't bother with passports.

Trump uses mail in voting in Florida.

Same with Utah

they’ve been Republican for well over two decades.

That's not entirely true. At least when it comes to presidential elections, Florida has been a swing state for the last two decades. They went for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

He will get this passed, or do it with some sort of executive order. Most left leaning states will ignore these things as they constitutionally have no power. And trump will use that at a reason to invalidate those states's votes entirely. This will cause violent protests. Trump will bring in the military and declare marshal law. We will then have a dictatorship with trump and his sons as dictators for generations.