ACORN

[kandrathe]

The issue of voter fraud in the US is, by and large, a bogeyman conjured up to justify vote suppression. This is not to say that it does not occur, but that its actual incidences are both rare and trivial, especially when compared with the enormous number of legitimate votes in play. Fair, non-partisan attempts to keep fraud out of the system are, of course, normal and expected. However, what is much more common is for one party or the other (Republicans tend to be much worse on this, but not alone) launch the "fraud" balloon, stir up public outrage, and then use that as a cover to sit at the polls and scrutinize the ID of every voter they think is probably from the other party. The idea is not to reject those votes in particular, but just to hold up the queue, so that, especially in poorer urban districts where lines are longer, people get demoralized or bored and simply go home. The numbers of people potentially disenfranchised by this kind of dirty operation dwarfs the number of fraudulent votes, and even worse, it often targets minority groups in a discriminatory way.

-Jester

In Mn, we have the Motor/Voter system. Every adult is required by law to have either a MN driver's license or a MN ID Card on them in public (show me your papers). Every time you change addresses you need to fill out a card (or go online now days), which also has a voter registration component attached. When I go in to vote, the precinct I live in has a list in alphabetical order, and checks off my name/address. In most circumstances this should work for everyone.

I don't see how this is repressive (at least from the voting perspective).