Wednesday, October 31, 2012
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Wednesday that he thinks it would be a good idea for people in the state to voluntarily show identification when they vote, even though it's not required by law.
"If you have to show a ID to buy a pack of cigarettes or to buy alcohol, which you should, then certainly you ought to have to present an ID to vote, so that we are certain that you're not stealing someone else's liberty and their chance to vote," Bryant said.
Bryant's comments came in response to a question from The Associated Press after he spoke at the Mississippi Economic Council's Hobnob, a social gathering for business people and politicians.
Mississippians in November 2011 approved a constitutional amendment to require each voter to show a driver's license or other photo identification before casting a ballot. Legislators voted early this year to put ID provisions into state law. However, because of Mississippi's history of racial discrimination, the state needs federal approval before it can enact any voting changes and it hasn't received that.
The U.S. Justice Department in early October asked Mississippi officials for more information about the proposed law, including facts that might prove an ID law won't discriminate against minority citizens.
Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, the state's top elections official, said weeks ago that ID won't be required in this year's presidential election. Absentee voting is already happening, and the election is next Tuesday.
Critics compare voter ID to a poll tax and say it could disproportionately hurt poor, older and minority voters.
Tea party groups in Mississippi have suggested people show a driver's license or other photo identification as a protest of the federal government's lack of action on the proposed voter ID law in the state.
Bryant has appealed to tea party voters on immigration enforcement and other issues, and AP asked him Wednesday whether he agrees with their proposal of showing ID as a form of protest.
"I think that would be a great idea," Bryant said. "You know, I almost automatically did that for years and the ladies at the counter would take my driver's license and look at it and check my address. So, I think that's a very good idea.
"I noticed the other day that President Obama presented his ID in Illinois before he could vote," Bryant said. "And if it's good enough for the president, it's certainly good enough for the people of Mississippi."
Rep. Bobby Moak of Bogue Chitto, Democratic leader in the Mississippi House, said in a separate interview that Bryant's comments are irresponsible and misleading.
"He's the elected chief executive officer of this state, and his words are listened to," said Moak, who voted against the proposed voter ID law.
Moak said Bryant's words are like a feather pillow opened on a windy street corner, saying they could scatter widely and make a mess.
"The concerted effort now, by elected officials, should be to say, 'Hold on. That's not the law of the land,'" Moak said.
Comments
ryannave 11 years, 5 months ago
Verbatim statement from the Mississippi Democratic Party:
DEMOCRATS DEMAND BRYANT RETRACT VOTER I.D. COMMENT
JACKSON-Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole issued the following statement:
“In an apparent end-run around federal law, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant today called for voters to ‘voluntarily’: show identification in the upcoming November 6 General Election. Bryant made these statements knowing full well that there is no requirement for identification in this election. By pandering to the tea party extremists, Bryant has deliberately created confusion among voters and election officials with less than six days to go until the election.
There is NO need for voters to show identification at the polls on Tuesday. Elections officials and poll workers have already been trained to that effect. Bryant’s comments create unnecessary confusion, and will likely result in delays at the polls November 6. We demand that he retract his comments immediately, and that the three members of the State Elections Commission issue a joint statement to the public that NO identification will be required on Tuesday.”
bill_jackson 11 years, 5 months ago
I will gladly present mine. Seriously, if, in 2012, you do not have a photo I.D., I question whether you have the reasoning capacity to make decisions as important as casting a vote.
goldeneagle97 11 years, 5 months ago
How does having or not having an ID become a parameter for judgement?
tstauffer 11 years, 5 months ago
"If you have to show a ID to buy a pack of cigarettes or to buy alcohol, which you should, then certainly you ought to have to present an ID to vote, so that we are certain that you're not stealing someone else's liberty and their chance to vote," Bryant said.
Remarkable argument for a governor to make given that neither of these is a constitutionally enshrined right or core to the fundamentals of our democracy.
Nolaman 11 years, 5 months ago
I disagree with the contention that he is attempting to suppress the vote. Republicans have a stranglehold on Mississippi politics, and there aren't enough voters without ID's out there to have any affect on this election or their control of the State at all. No, he's not trying to scare away black voters, he's trying to scare up white voters. in particular those white voters prone to believe these paranoid conspiracy stories of stealing elections and such. Mississippi is populated with them, and the racists who run the State can count on them each and every time show up in droves after spewing this kind of muck. He's just stoking the fire to keep it going. Cynical and manipulative.
donnaladd 11 years, 5 months ago
I don't disagree, Nolaman, although I suspect that a combination of both wouldn't bother him any.
The big thing Mississippians should see, though, is that the GOP in Mississippi is worried about the turnout; otherwise, they wouldn't do this silly stuff. The personhood vote last fall was a wake-up, as was two (albeit Republican) women upsetting the two Republican men they funded well. We have the highest proportion of African Americans in the country, and eight years ago, 63 percent of voters then under 30 voted for John Kerry.
I wish Mississippians would be confident enough to seize our power -- by voting. And voting our best interests, which is the exact opposite of Romney's desire to dump the costs of education, health care and apparently a lot of disaster relief back on our state as soon after taking office as possible.
And his foreign policy advisers -- war hawks from the Bush administration -- want us to declare more wars in the Middle East, and poor states like Mississippi will again disproportionately sacrifice our young soldiers to their neo-con vision.
Of course, I'm digressing from voter ID now. Sort of.
brjohn9 11 years, 5 months ago
Voting for someone else does not "steal their liberty" in any but the most poetic sense. Beyond that, Brant's comment only demonstrates why in-person voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. If you go vote in someone's place, you have to know that they haven't already voted. Otherwise, there's a good chance you'll get caught. To have a significant impact on an election, you would need dozens of conspirators traveling from precinct to precinct, at considerable risk of being detected. But conspiracies involving dozens of people rarely stay secret for long, and there are easier ways of committing voter fraud.
darryl 11 years, 5 months ago
To echo Bill Jackson, when I went to fill out my absentee ballot, I handed over my driver's license so that the clerk would have all of the relevant information to give me my correct ballot. I didn't have to, but it saved us both some time. As I've said here and in other forums, if one is so "off the grid" that they do not have photo identification, then they probably shouldn't have any say in the governance of this state/nation. Hell, I have talked with people who have no idea, literally, who the current VP is or who Romney's running mate is...makes me wish I could rescind their abilities, too.
donnaladd 11 years, 5 months ago
No surprise, Darryl. Y'all are just a white-men-in-denial echo chamber -- and you just don't have, nor will believe, all the facts. http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/...">Read this story that we published today -- and the part about how many people do not have government photo IDs. Judge that all you want, but it's true, and they shouldn't not be punished, nor made to pay a poll tax, just because people like you thinks everyone lives just like you do.
I'm sick and tired of you guys ignoring facts and belittling poor people. Get off my website if you can't be a more serious human being than that.
darryl 11 years, 5 months ago
Wow...to accuse someone of ignoring facts and belittling poor people, when I did neither, well...wow. I stated my preference and an opinion. And, yes, I guess it was on your website. I, too, can judge as you have. Is my opinion on your website somehow less worthy than others? If so, then mea culpa. If not, then, well...
donnaladd 11 years, 5 months ago
Y'all are ignoring facts every time you declare that everyone either has or should have a ballot if they're worthy citizens or such. YOU wrote this, Darryl:
If you can't see that you are belittling people, especially the poor, I feel sorry for you. And here is the always remarkable BillJackson:
Seriously, gentlemen, your posts here over time have given no indication that anyone should care what you question. And you don't care what the answer is -- so why freakin' bother. The world is bigger than the ends of your own noses, and many people don't have what you have. Get over yourselves. You make Mississippi sound like it hasn't changed in 50 years. Fortunately, y'all are increasingly becoming the minority, so there is hope.
brjohn9 11 years, 5 months ago
It's the entitlement in Darryl's comments that makes them exasperating. If he's fine with presenting ID, then everyone else should be fine with it too. But that's not the standard we should apply to protecting basic rights, especially considering Mississippi's long history of disenfranchising voters.
Remember that poll taxes and literacy tests were not explicitly racist. These laws were color blind, just like voter ID laws. But the purpose and effect of the laws was racist. Mississippi's voter ID law would almost certainly have discriminatory effects, so it is almost certainly illegal under the Voting Rights Act, whatever Darryl thinks about it.
We stopped accepting "common sense" restrictions on voting because they always proved to be fig leaves for suppressing the vote. The same is true of voter ID.
donnaladd 11 years, 5 months ago
Yes, Brian, re entitlement. It's the attitude that "it's all about me and what I think."
I saw a young white woman the other night on Twitter say that she did not find the rebel flag and Colonel Reb; therefore, they're not.
Face palm.
If I heard these guys talking half as much about how to stop the voter fraud that Republican operatives keep committing, or even acting concerned about it, I might believe they're actually concerned about protecting the integrity of the vote. That silence is very telling.
bill_jackson 11 years, 5 months ago
Yikes! A little more self righteous than usual today, are we? Just wondering, do you also think the other states that have successfully enacted voter ID laws such as Indiana and Michigan to have suspect motivation for them as well?
darryl 11 years, 5 months ago
facepalm...sigh...whatever. I saw on "30 for 30" the other night in the episode titled "Ghosts of Mississippi" that someone considered the state's name, Mississippi, offensive and connoted racism. Therefore, it must be...please. Get over yourselves.
Pinter1199 11 years, 5 months ago
@ Daryl. I'm with you. As are a lot of Mississippians. Otherwise, it would not have passed into law. I will also be showing my ID as I have done since I started voting.
tstauffer 11 years, 5 months ago
Meanwhile, back at the real problem:
Did I miss Governor Bryant's forceful condemnation of voter registration fraud by state GOP offices? Just curious... now back to your regularly scheduled rant against non-existing voter fraud problems.
(My particular favorite is "I'll be showing my ID, whether they want it or not..." -- are you somehow concerned that you might accidentally commit voter fraud? :)
donnaladd 11 years, 5 months ago
The funny thing is that showing your ID when it's not needed is just clogging the process and keeping lines longer. Do you hope that some people will give up and go home?
Otherwise, it doesn't make a lick of sense.
Pinter, thank goodness that individual and constitutional rights are never decided by the majority who vote. And the majority who vote under always right: Remember the majority of MIssissippians who voted in the 1960s to close pubic schools rather then integrate them? Or the majority who voted last fall against Personhood only to have state officials/legislators pledge to pursue it at the capitol? (And under a Romney administration, they might well get their wish, but that's an aside.)
And y'all feel free to post all your indignation about the voter-fraud attempts by Republicans being revealed around the nation right now. We're happy to give you space for that as well as your weak arguments for voter ID.
tstauffer 11 years, 5 months ago
Interesting piece here -- Steve Schmidt (former McCain campaign manager) admitting that the GOP is making up the "issue" of voter fraud, particularly in-person voter impersonation.
http://thinkprogress.org/election/201...">http://thinkprogress.org/election/201...
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