I just voted in Bloomington, Indiana. It was a pleasure, a perk of privilege. Using my passport as the required ID, I noticed that its signature was matched against my signature on the voter registration form I filled out last summer, which was matched against the signature I made in the voting book as I went through the line. The picture on my passport, from only two years ago, raised no questions of resemblance.
So I'm lucky: I have traveled overseas so I have my up to date government ID, and I live in a precinct where there are short lines and friendly poll workers.
The stories around the country of long lines, "True the Vote" challenges against legitimate voters, threatening phone calls and bill boards, and other strategies of voter suppression fill me with rage. It becomes clear that our top priority has to be access to voting and the information that is the foundation of a functioning democracy.
More below.
Indiana is the originator of the photo-ID voting law from several years ago. To vote here, you need a federal passport or state-issued ID (e.g. drivers license). In my liberal home of Bloomington, there is only one place to get a state ID if you don't already have one. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles is on the far west side of town, not on a bus line. Like all BMV offices, it features long lines and aggravating waits, and its own incredibly stringent requirements (birth certificate, Social Security Card, the "right" kind of proof of address, etc) to get an ID. Many people here have had to make multiple visits to satisfy the state's requirements.
Who among us doesn't have a drivers license? In my own privileged family, two people: my 21 year old son who doesn't drive for various logistical reasons and (until her recent death) my 90-plus grandmother, who never lost a single brain cell of her cognitive ability and always voted, but who wouldn't have had a government ID in this year's election. Add to that all the people with much less privileged lives who are entitled to vote but who for various reasons don't have and don't want a close relationship with the state. For all these people, isn't the comparison of the voter registration card signature and the live in-person Election Day signature enough?
I have been voting since the 1970's, mostly in Indiana, where the Republicans have won more than their share of elections. As long as they win fairly, I can't complain; that's democracy. But now they see their historic demographic advantage slipping away and are trying to turn back history.
This is simply a long preamble to the main point: we can make no progress in federal and state policy, we can not move forward as a society, until voting is a right that is easily exercised. We must make this our top priority so that all the other things we want can happen.
Beyond that, we need better information. We have substituted the evening rants on Fox News and MSNBC for "mainstream" news; we live in our bubbles. In small towns like this one, talk radio is all right wing and it is full of lies and paranoia. Our own paranoia is apparently less well funded.
We need two things: access to voting, and the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine. We need to bring back real journalism, even when its attempts at objectivity have proven clumsy and imperfect. Last night President Obama, in his closing speech, called for the "restoration of our Democracy." That sounds like a good start to me.
(cross posted at culturalpolicyissues.blogger.com)