This Jezebel post says pretty much what I feel about that affirmative action case.
The plaintiff here, went on to a great school and landed a great job even though she didn't get into her "dream" school. Yeah, **** happens. She did not meet the automatic grad requirements, but neither did the about 50 others that applied with her. Her grades were better, but UT takes a lot of different things into account: test scores, community service, etc. And only, if my memory serves me correctly here, only 4-5 out of the other 50 were not white. But for some reason Texas pushed this on up...Anyway, I like the point made in the following article:
An Open Letter to Affirmative Action Reject Abigail Fisher

Oh yeah, and I'm super pumped about the court's decision on DOMA and prop 8. 37 states to go!

Of course, they weren't enacted to do that but that's exactly what happens. Minorities especially in the South that ARE eligible to vote but don't have a government issued photo ID for one reason or another is the main issue. It's not even a small percentage of minorities. Republicans love those laws because they target democratic voters and those voters are turned away for not having proper identification at the polls. The whole what if scenario with the tests was just an example I over heard on a news program. I won't say which because I was at the gym watching it and didn't bother to have the channel changed.

I can't make heads or tails of this - you're upset that people who can't provide a government issued photo id can't vote?

It's not just the fact that they can't provide it but the fact that they still pay taxes and possibly can't afford to order a birth certificate to get a photo ID or they are elderly and haven't needed to obtain a photo ID but used to be able to vote and now they can't.

So the answer is to just leave the gates wide open for fraud?
I think the smarter answer is to use some of those tax dollars the government wastes on useless programs and government waste/abuse to allow those groups you're talking about to obtain the necessary identification so they can vote legally, while simultaneously preventing fraud.

It astounds me how this is always argued from a single position. Would better management of our tax dollars be beneficial? Yes. Could we then address the problems you're talking about without simply saying "If you can breathe, you can vote"? Of course.
Why that's not on the table first and foremost is disgusting. And I'm not making any allegations, but it seems reasonable to me that the left stands to lose a few votes if we're required to prove we're citizens. Just like the right would gain a few if actual citizens couldn't afford to prove it. Which is why you make a few sacrifices and meet in the middle.

The states that easily win by a large landslide and go to the Republican party seem to be the main culprits that push so hard for Voter ID laws. I'm not saying open the flood gates completely but there has to be a half way point as you suggest. It should be acceptable bring in say a paystub with your name on it showing you pay taxes, whatever id you have and a bill from your residence. There are people there when you vote to check on things like that to help prevent fraud if need be.

How on earth can you be too poor to afford a birth certificate and simultaneously pay taxes of any meaning? Are you forgetting half the people in this country don't even owe federal taxes?



Oh great, more conspiratorial nonsense about how preventing voter fraud is really some super-duper-complicated plot by Republicans to prevent "minorities" (whatever that means) from voting.

Great, great. Let us sit back and ask ourselves why Leftists are so eager to make the ID requirements for voting so minimal that it'd allow tens of millions of illegals to participate. FFS....

I'm not saying one side has more to gain or lose than the other, and it shouldn't even be about that. I'm saying that regardless of who would gain, voting is a right afforded to citizens. When you can't verify that, it's simply a right afforded to whoever, left or right, which doesn't do much for the integrity of our system.

As for it being acceptable to bring in a paystub showing you pay taxes... how is that going to help people that don't work at all and are on disability or welfare, or whose only source of income is SSI? They don't pay anything but sales tax. Do you expect them to bring in receipts for a year's worth of purchases? An illegal could do that too.
I realize that these people are likely to be citizens, but it's not helping them to need paystubs or tax forms. And it's not providing further security against fraud to also include "some form of ID" along with a bill, since undocumented individuals DO live in the country, and they are paying bills SOMEHOW. (Cash maybe?)

If we were to actually implement your solution, we'd have to disregard the tax part based on the whole concept alone. Then we'd be left with the other parts that defeat the whole purpose of your ill-conceived plan to prevent fraud while making it easier for the disenfranchised to vote.

And still, you've not even considered the idea that maybe we can require proper ID, and simply spend some of our government-abused tax dollars for getting this identification to individuals that cannot afford it with just their welfare checks alone?

I don't see how this is so inconceivable.

They may not owe federal taxes at the end of the year but they still have it coming out of their paycheck every week.

It's not inconceivable but it's way too logical for the government to enact. It makes too much sense.