For some reason, Democratic Gov. Brad Henry vetoed a very reasonable bill on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 4, a bill that would have required Oklahomans to provide a valid form of federal or state-issued identification or a voter registration card, was shot down by Henry, who was previously a known opponent of voter ID legislation. We understand Henry’s arguments. But this bill was a very mild form of previous voter ID bills.
SB 4 would have, unlike most pieces of voter ID legislation, accepted voter registration cards as a form of ID. It also would have allowed people without valid forms of ID to vote on a provisional ballot that would have been reviewed by an election board.
The bill, essentially, would have prevented any voter fraud in our state. No, there haven’t been any reported cases of voter fraud in Oklahoma.
But with about 25 percent voter participation in this state, there could be mass voter fraud going on right now, and nobody would know.
If people wanted to vote illegally, they could. Easily. And we probably wouldn’t even know.
And while Democrats insist the voter ID legislation is a mere Republican attempt to eliminate senior citizens and poor voters, both of which are statistically more likely to vote Democrat, there isn’t any proof the legislation will work in favor of conservatives.
In fact, a Wall Street Journal report from last year revealed that Georgia’s Democrat voter numbers increased after it passed similar legislation.
The good news for proponents of the bill is that Sen. John Ford, R-Bartlesville, who introduced SB 4, has also introduced legislation that would send the issue to a vote of the people.
Ironically, Oklahomans might have one more chance to vote fraudulently in opposition to voter fraud.
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JWade 3 years, 1 month ago
It's not a reasonable bill. It violates a citizen's right to vote. It allows people to turn you away if you're not in your right district.
As the law stands - I believe - you can vote anywhere, and your vote can still count. It won't necessarily, but it can because you have a record of your vote.
The bill is meant to limit non-citizens from voting - which is understandable. ... but at the expense of removing a right of citizens to vote - and that is not understandable. No one should ever willingly give up a constitutional right.
Make sense?
kdbp1213 3 years, 1 month ago
"No, there haven’t been any reported cases of voter fraud in Oklahoma."
No. But there's a first time for everything. How many cases of UNREPORTED fraud do we have? What is everybody's objection(s)? One person, one vote. Right? I wanna make sure the one person is exactly who the one person says he/she is. John Doe needs to vote on John Doe's behalf. John Doe does not need to vote on Jane Doe's behalf. What's wrong with that?? How about proactivity for a change? It seems like most of the time in our society we wait for the crime to happen before we do anything to prevent it.
acsooner 3 years, 1 month ago
"As the law stands - I believe - you can vote anywhere"
JWade, are you 100% retarded? It is required by law that you vote at 'your' polling place, that is the closest in proximity polling place assigned to the address that you used to legally register. Also required information on a registration card? A state-issued ID, such as a driver's license.
The problem with bills like this is that they require people to show their IDs at their registered polling places, which would penalize those who forgot them (the elderly) or cannot afford IDs in the first place (the poor), which in effect is discrimination.
I don't really see a problem in either case, requiring or not requiring IDs, so I'm going with the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."