Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 25, 2012

They’ll add up the votes again and again until they get what they want, like they always do.

Hey, all that matters is that Romney wins Pa.

And, it’s all so unnecesary!

The repubs have already proved they can “fix” the voting machines – look at Ohio since 2004. Then they killed off the insider who was going to squeal. So much more efficient! And without al this messy hoopla and bad press.

Republicans are the dictators we have feared since before the Revolution. They can’t be trusted to be loyal to their fellow Americans, especially if they can make more money by screwing us. Come on! These people should never have power because they are un-American, traitors, ….to all that is good about this country… and according to them, anyone else is the literal enemy. All they care about is money…..YOURS!

”Voter ID, which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania: Done,” -Pennsylvania Republican House Majority Leader Mike Turzai

The State of Pennsylvania seems to be trying to defend the constitutionality of this registration law without any claim that the problem they are purporting to solve actually exists. It puts them on the edge of not meeting “rational basis”, the weakest standard for judicial review: for a law to restrict people’s rights at all requires that there be at least a rational basis for the law’s existence.My non-expert view is that this law matches the standard of “intermediate review”: since it will prevent at least some people from voting, the state must establish an “exceedingly persuasive justification” for its necessity, although not (as in “strict scrutiny”) have to show that it’s being done in the best possible way.Without showing that the purported problem exists, there is no way they can be “exceedingly persuasive”.

To watch we Democrats charging the GOP with “voter fraud” is more than I can bear. Chicago, anyone? Anyone else remember “Landslde Lyndon” and how many dead people had to vote for him to win the Texas Senate race? Is Gary having early Alzheimer’s? Sheesh!

There’s a voter fraud problem alright, it’s just that it’s not people trying to vote with false identities, it’s going on in GOP-led state legislatures. Good of Mike Turzai to let a little honesty slip in and admit it’s really about disenfranchising those who they think more likely to vote for someone else.

Just the name, Grand Old Party, always make me smile.

If your only goal once getting into office is to get someone out of office and repeal any bill they had anything to do with, including just signing it into law, then you are in the way. Please resign now.

the gop loves disenfranchising anyone who might not vote for them. even though they enfranchised all the minorities with the 14th, 15th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neGbKHyGuHU

Sure Garry, come on down to Florida!! Dead damocrats have been voting often here for years!! Down here when a cop asks, “ya got any ID?” The proper response is;“about whut?”

Heck, Florida doesn’t need any voter ID laws. They just post a trooper on the road to the voting site, and stop “certain folk”, and tell them, “No no, You’re voting booth is waay across town!”

You have to have an id to do everything else, why not to vote?

With no id requirement there IS no way to catch fraudulent voters.

Read The Declaration of Independence.

Hello Neighbors,I went to school in a small town in Mississippi for first, second, and fifth grade starting in 1964. Among many other injustices, I saw black high school boys bullied by elementary school white children, and the older, much larger youth had to take it or risk his parents suffering consequences at work or worse, after midnight. My grandparents and parents never spoke badly about or to the blacks in our town and none of us were allowed to either. It created friendships that introduced me to music and ideas from which I still benefit. Our nation should be doing all it can to help people vote instead of making it more difficult. When we are united, we are invincible. The two parties seem more intrested in dividing us than uniting. Ironically, in the early 60’s, it was the Democrats (Dixiecrats they were called then) seeking to keep blacks away from the polls, now it is the Republicans, though they are more encompassing. The Republican majoritys in all of these states want to keep away people of ALL races and religions as long as those people might vote as Democrats. It seems to indicate they don’t believe they can win on issues so they must instead win any other way they can. There is no honor in putting obstacles in the way of voters, and it certainly cannot be done in the name of Christianity, a religion to which many of the same people enacting these laws claim allegiance.With Respect, and sadness..C.

I wonder how many dead people in Chicago voted for Obama in 2008? Given it’s history of corruption, probably quite a few. Voter ID laws are a simple way to prevent this type of fraud. Yes, make them free, but by all means, require people to identify themselves with SOME form of photo ID! Most drivers license offices will produce state photo ID cards, for those who do not drive.

so what about the black panthers in military garb keeping white voters from coming into the voting building a few years ago. also without ids, you can’t prove anything. just askfor eric holder’s ballot and they will hand it to you

There is widespread voter fraud in the ame way there were “commies under the beds” during the McCarthy era, which is to say, only in the minds of the fearmongers. Is there any fraud? Well of course, people are people. Is it statistically significant? Not by a long shot.

Requiring IDs has nothing to do with voter integrity, either. If you make them free – as you must if you are not going to make it a poll tax, then you have an unfunded mandate. All to solve a problem that is not there. Question: is it better to keep out thousands of legal, eligible voters or to keep out non-existent or (even if there were) a handful of ineligible voters?

Let’s keep 750,000 people from voting so we can stop 4 people from voting fraudulently.

What are the Republicans afraid of? Oh yeah: losing power.

I love raalden saying “stupid libs like Canu©k Trudeau can’t ever get it right.” Um, speaking of getting it right, the guy’s not Canadian. I know they once had a PM named Trudeau up there, but actually? Not the same guy! Amazing!

Doonesbury and the left are losing it again.

Remember Catholics – the Bishops will issue an interdict against us denying us ALL sacraments unless we vote for the pagan Romney. Funny thing, when I was a kid the sisters made me pray for the “pagan babies.” I never realized I was praying for Mitt Romney.

Rank children. The Daley machine stole Illinois for Kennedy in 1960. It has nothing to do with Jim Crow laws. It has everything to do with not being able to deal with the will of the people.

@JosephBidenJr99

I’m afraid this is an inept comparison at best, even if you are a Democrat. To stuff ballot boxes to win is certainly both illegal and immoral, and both parties have been guilty of it.

However, to deliberately disenfranchise a legal voter, particularly a minority voter who’s voting rights have been violated or outright denied for years, is orders of magnitude more heinous.

“Identification has been required to vote in Florida since 1977. In 1998 the Florida Legislature expanded the ID requirement to include both a photo and signature.” (Fromhttp://www.dos.state.fl.us/news/communications/pressrelease/pressRelease.cfm?id=264 ) I recalled that I. D. had been required here for a long time. We seem to get along ok. What I object to is that Gov. Rick Scott has instituted draconian voter purges that have resulted in large numbers of people being wrongfully disenfranchised. See articles under “governor rick scott voter purge” on Google (an example being http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-moran/voter-purge-citizens_b_1699542.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

Not sure why everyone is up in arms about having an ID for voting? You need an ID to get into a hospital. You are supposed to have one to drive. You need one to make a credit card charge. If anything all the Socialists should love it, it gives them a chance to create another agency.

Driving is not a right protected by the constitution. Many banks are just requiring a fingerprint to cash a check. Want to try again? Requiring someone pay to vote, regardless of how, is unconstitutional. Why is it you can’t get that through your heads? If picture id was given free in every state with no restrictions I’d be all for it. Until then….

It’s the GOP that’s trying to get rid of the constitution. See my previous post. Voting without requiring payment is protected by the constitution and you are trying to force all people to purchase an ID to vote. That is unconstitutional.

http://www.MittRomneyIsAUnicorn.com/

I absolutely love it!Preach, Garry, preach!

Hey, Trudeau, thank you so much for your courage in pursing the unpleasant, hypocritical sides of our national character, of which the voter ID programs during an election year are the ‘worstest’ right now.

“ANY such “photo-ID” required to VOTE, in ANY ELECTION, must be available FREE OF CHARGE and UNIVERSALLY, to any and all citizens voting. If it be charged for, it becomes a “Poll Tax”; and that is UN-Constitutional.”That about nails it. States can require voter photo IDs. If they provide them for free.(Now is time for someone – yet again – to pipe in with “but I need a photo ID to buy beer!”) Beer, and driving, and renting movies, and cashing checks, are not rights guaranteed by the constitution.

Varnes! me bud I’ll never meet! hooray for you! The GOTP MUST die! Breakup ther banks too big to trust…etc. Onward, the human drive from slavery to freedom continues…

I think seniors will be affected by the “show your id to vote” more than any other group. Some elders who were born here at home so long ago don’t even have their birth registered. Other than that, I see no reason that anyone eligible to vote should not be able to get a valid id. jd from pa

Too bad many media markets consider Trudeau a “political cartoonist,” and, as such, “Doonesburry” is placed in the editorial section. The result is that only those who already agree read it. The lesson is lost for those who have yet to learn.

Seems like most people understand that to discover voter fraud you need some way to identify legal voters. Being a overboard liberal is not a reason not to use your brain. ID’s are a cheap way to proving you are a AMERICAN CITIZEN.

In a trial beginning today in Pennsylvania regarding the (in)validity of the photo ID requirement, lawyers for the commonwealth and for the plaintiffs have stipulated as to the absence of incidents of vote fraud:

“The state signed a stipulation agreement with lawyers for the plaintiffs which acknowledges there ‘have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states.’

“Additionally, the agreement states Pennsylvania ‘will not offer any evidence in this action that in-person voter fraud has in fact occurred in Pennsylvania and elsewher’” or even argue ‘that in person voter fraud is likely to occur in November 2012 in the absense of the Photo ID law.’ ”

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/pennsylvania_voter_id_no_in_person_voter_fraud.php?ref=fpblg

And a Republican , historically, Abe Lincoln, was the Great Emancipator. How times have changed.

On one hand, as a former felon (10 yrs for $10 worth of acid) who was disenfranchised for years, I don’t really have a problem showing ID to verify qualified voters. We have to identify ourselves just to leave a comment on this forum, why should we have a lesser standard to vote? On the other hand if it’s not a problem then why fix it? The biggest problem to our voting process is uninformed voters. Our electoral process would get better results with more emphasis on informed voting vs universal voting.

As far as Jim Crow goes, when Barack Obama was elected the first black President of the United States, Steve Cohen was elected representative of Harold “Call Me” Ford’s old ninth District of Tennessee & he wanted to be the first white member of Obama’s old congressional caucus, but he was denied. Cohen is no outside agitator, he a moderate who shares many of the Caucus’s principles. He’s for gender equality, supports legal abortion, marriage equality, medical cannabis, (He was a headline speaker at a marijuana gala in Washington) gun rights, and capital punishment, and opposes the war in Iraq, he even sponsored a resolution apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow laws that passed in the House. When he ran again in ‘10 he went through hell from Nikki Tinker and some Black Churches, but he won though this time with about 70% of the vote. He’s up for election again this year. Obama’s mother was no less white than Cohen’s but he got into the caucus on the face of his Kenyan father and not his American mother. Apparently the Black Congressional Caucus goes by the archaic one drop rule when it comes to membership. I wonder why they don’t adopt the 4/5ths rule that goes along with the one drop rule?  

For equalities sake, Obama recently appealed to the Augusta golf club to stop segregating and allow the female CEO of IBM to become a member, wouldn’t it be remarkable if he reminded his old caucus of Martin Luther King’s words, __"… the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination."__ and prevailed on them to end their segregation? Jim Crow, Jerome Crow different hue of the same bird.

The new extremism: "Vote for us or we won’t let you vote.’ And I thought this battle was won 50 years ago.

Jim Crow is alive and well. Racial bigotry surfaced on BOTH “POLITICAL” sides when Obama competed with Clinton. Old ways became the “new politics” of America. Nobody I fought with considered the “color” of his fellow soldier relevant, but a couple years later, “race wars” were erupting again within the military. “Self-segregaton” has been around for a long time as well, “bigotry” isn’t just reserved for the majority against the minority either.

Observing the conflicts between tribes in the Middle East causes Americans to feel “superior”, HAR! Delusion isn’t abnormality in THIS nation, it’s the norm.

Brilliant. Forty years later, and Trudeau is still The Man.

Garretson Beekman “Garry” Trudeau was born in New York City. He is not now nor has he ever been a Canadian. (Canuck is spelled with a ck, by the way) And I doubt he gets things “right”, defense of your civil rights, however he does do brilliantly.

OK. If I must explain the “Black Panther” myth from the 2008 election, here goes. There were 2 members of the “New Black Panther Party”,(there is no such organization, they were the only 2 members ever to exist, and they were denounced by the real Black Panthers), stationed outside of one voting site, in a black neighborhood in Philadelphia. This “incident” was investigated by the Bush(!) administration and was found to have to effect on voting and no credibility. Of course, the Republicans are happy to blow this up into a national scandal to raise fear among their racist friends. No doubt, the good SGT and his ilk will not believe a word I say, although this is all well documented.

“I have an even better idea: if you receive more in direct government payments than you pay in taxes, you don’t get to vote.”Shouldn’t this also go for the uber-rich, who arrange to pay no taxes, but take advantage of police/fire services, the SEC, FTC, FCC, and many more local or federal services?

If photo IDs must be required to vote, what about all the places that do voting by mail?

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv219/Dredd308/531345_3756160735745_1434253330_n.jpg

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv219/Dredd308/531345_3756160735745_1434253330_n.jpg

What a load of bull droppings. If you didn’t live in the jim crow south like I did don’t think you know anything about it. What these laws will do is ensure fair elections. Unless of course you like the idea of outfits like acorn and the seiu stuffing the ballot box of course.

IT’S NOT ABOUT VOTING, IT’S ABOUT WHO COUNTS THE VOTES! Diebold, anybody?

Amazing that this country did just fine for almost 250 years without voter ID.

If a black person votes for Obama just because he’s black, doesn’t that make him a racist? And if not, why not?

There are many, many places of far lesser importance that require some form of ID, so why not for something as very important as the right to vote? From what I have seen & read, the states with the new ID laws are bending over backwards to provide FREE ID, but not necessarily the transportation to get one. If you are able to get transportation to vote, there should be no reason to not to have the same transportation to get a free voter ID.

In Canada we check off a box on our Income Tax Return whether or not you wish to be listed on the Voter list. When election time (Provincial or Federal) a postcard with your name, address and the location of the nearest Voting booth will be located is mailed (at least a month in advance) to the address on your Income Tax Form. The postcard also gives the date and location of advance polls and telephone numbers of where assistance can be obtained in the event of disability or age. When you go to vote you take the card with you and present it at the time of voting. Even my disabled son receives a card and we submit a joint return. Problem solved. Unless of course you don’t pay taxes or submit the return. :)

If no one is checking ID’s how in the world would you come up with any number of fraud cases other than zero? The logic would be hilarious, if not so sad.

“Jim Crow is historically a Democrat.- You can’t drive without a driver’s license, fish without a fishing license, or run a business without a business license. Are these licenses unfair, or are you just saying that people who can’t figure out how to get any kind of licehse will always vote for the Democratic candidate?”

Gail — First of all, Jim Crow refers to a set of laws meant to restrict voting so “he” wasn’t a democrat or republican. Secondly, there seem to be a lot of people in this country who either don’t have the proper ID or any ID at all. Take Texas for example. The consider an NRA membership card acceptable ID but a Student ID card from one of their own universities is not. Get the picture?

What an ignorant statement.

How can you say something like that with conviction? Can you see into the hearts and minds of every single American? If not, you can’t possibly know.

While it was a complete failure as a post, you may have a future in right-wing radio show hosting. Can you keep your tone of voice shrill and outraged for hours at a time? You might be able to make a nice living spouting that garbage.

In Ohio you have to show a picture ID and sign a polling record book that has your address and a copy of your signature. Seems OK to me. Just to PO the bleeding heartsI believe people that do not pay property tax OR pay income tax should not have the privilege to vote. Otherwise we have what is unfolding today where the guy that promises more freebies or free cell phones wins. Not fair to the working folks that produce something.

Wow, you can rearrange the first four letters of his name to make “turd”. How long did it take you to figure that one out?

The fact is that GBT is the most successful political cartoonist of our times. No grade school insult will change that.

Before we have the next American Revolution we need to destroy the Rethuglican Party and all they stand for.

Wow, wow, just wow. You’re as witty as your namesake and hero.

Are they also paying for retrieval of birth certificates? Are they going to ensure that every voter knows exactly what they need before election day? Are these senior centers in every single neighborhood where elderly voters live?

If you want two specific examples of people who still can’t get ID even with help, look here:http://tinyurl.com/bn2a2ls

If you are correct, then I am cool with that. That is what they did in Georgia- they had mobile ID units- until the Georgia Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional based on the state’s constitution. IDs for voting purposes- not for driving, not for buying alcohol or tobacco- should be free.

You have to have ID to get into Michelle O’s book signing, but it is bad to prove you are a citizen to Vote? Who is the freaking dingbat?

Voters have always been required to identify themselves at the polls, which they do by answering questions about themselves. But I don’t mind the idea of an ID card. But it should be national, everyone should get one, and the system of ID cards should be in place several years before they are used for voter ID. This card could be linked to a database that would enable such a national ID system to be used to identify illegal aliens, those with criminal records, etc. They could be used for background checks when buying a gun, and any number of things. But first get the system established, work out the bugs, make certain there is a good way for people to access what is recorded in the database about them so there are no surprises. It could solve a lot of problems, if properly designed, concerning identity theft in many circumstances. But trying to create such just before a hotly-contested election, an election in which one party is much more likely to profit from the disfranchisement of the people most likely to be effected by a new system, and only in some states, without a national standard. … Oh, come on! In fact, only an ID issued by the Federal Government would seem appropriate in a Federal election. “Any man who is to be governed by a set of laws has the right to a voice in how those laws are made.” — George Mason (1725-1792), paraphrase.

I guess they figured it was getting to hard to keep dicking with the computers at the polls. I haven’t forgotten 2004 either. This is like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Whom can we turn to?

“Or Nancy Pelosi, … All those deaths in afghanistan can be laid at her feet, … cause the war to go on years longer … killed him in the first few months.”

Oh, blame it on Pelosi, TP where did you get your revisionist PhD? Don’t you remember when the Commander-in-Chief said, “Frankly I don’t think of him much anymore … cuz ahm fixin’ to bust up Iraq and I ain’t got time for no Afghanistan.”?

hey shiney boy……has it occured to you that Penn has done nothing to investigate voter fraud.

videos of people going in and regestering as Mickey Mouse are out there. It’s an eye opener!

stan

Just to touch on one of your oft-repeated points (we get it, some guy bit another guy’s finger—so let’s condemn the whole gay movement because of it).You claim Democrats want to eliminate Conservative Radio? Not that I’ve ever heard of (tho’ we wish it would go away on it’s own, as it is quite rank).It’s the Right that wants to do away with any kind of smart broadcasting; how many Republicans have gone after NPR over the years?

Gary Trudeau is AMERICAN, the Canadian is PIERRE Trudeau. He was Prime Minister. Dang, even I as an American know that one. AND I also know that there is a LOT of Jim Crow in the Voter Suppression laws that PA, FL and TX are passing.

If you have proof of that claim, do something about it. If you don’t have proof, you are just spreading gossip and Fox Lies,

Because something free from the government, well that’s just socialism, and socialism is just Satanism, and that makes blonde white baby Jesus cry.

Other than people who like to come to a comic that has always had a liberal slant and malign liberals, what “undesirables” are there? The life form I have the LEAST desire to see is the racist Cons that have been crawling out from under rocks and boards ever since our first Black President was LEGALLY and properly elected. (Rather than having his daddy get the Supreme Court to hand it to him, like a certain recent Presidential failure had to do) When Obama was elected, I thought I saw a glimmer of hope that the racism so rife in this nation was finally ending. But the GOP has been squashing that hope ever since.

Not in pa… Not that I’ve heard… So no, not yet

Ha! Ha! Talk about not getting it right, ROFLMFAO! You’re confusing Gary with Pierre, who was the Canadian PM in the 70s. Gary was born in NY. And voter ID’s is disenfranchisement that’s been dressed up.

These laws will do virtually nothing to improve the integrity of our elections. Why? Because voter impersonation is the only thing it will stop, and that’s not the problem.

“There have been a handful of substantiated cases of individual ineligible voters attempting to defraud the election system. But by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare.In part, this is because fraud by individual voters is a singularly foolish and ineffective way to attempt to win an election. Each act of voter fraud in connection with a federal election risks five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, in addition to any state penalties. In return, it yields at most one incremental vote. That single extra vote is simply not worth the price.”

http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/pdf/TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf

On the other hand, allowing partisan officials to oversee elections and voting rolls is a clear conflict of interest. If we want better elections, we should start there.

GOP stands for Great Oil Protectors.

Sharon Meroni has gone before the Illinois Board Of Elections to claim that our elections are not valid because proof of citizenship is not required to run for office. If she has proof of actualfraudulent votes in Cook County or anywhere else, I can’t find it.Also, you claimed yesterday that you’ve never said Obama was from Kenya. Here are your words from this forum about a month ago:“Isn’t it weird that only the records of the 1st week of Auguest, 1961 are missing? That well could have been the time his Mom brought him from Kenya .to Hawaii.”I believe you’ve also used the phrase, " socialist appendage of Kenya", to describe Obama.So, you’re saying he might be Kenyan? Riiight…You have no credibility. Your focus on Obama’s well documented eligibility to hold the Office of President is frankly racist and disgusting.

Go get ’em, Garry! Obama 2012.

“Of course, your statement suggests you DO know the minds of every single American.”No, I wasn’t making broad, sweeping claims about racism being virtually gone across the entire nation. I have run across enough racists in my lifetime to know they still exist in significant numbers. And I really don’t know what you mean by “attuned to the victim mentality”. I’m white…most of the racists I know thought I would agree with them when they exposed themselves for what they were.

There isn’t much left-wing radio because most of us prefer to read our news.

“In its 2000 ruling, Alexander v Mineta, the [U.S. Supreme] Court … affirmed the district court’s interpretation that our Constitution ‘does not protect the right of all citizens to vote, but rather the right of all qualified citizens to vote.’ And it’s state legislatures that wield the power to decide who is ‘qualified.’ As a result, voting is not a right, but a privilege granted or withheld at the discretion of local and state governments…. the U.S. is one of just 11 nations among 120 or so constitutional democracies that fail to guarantee a right to vote in their constitutions.”

Garry, You ROCK!!! Fell out of my chair laughing and crying at the same time. Keep up the great work, the world needs more of what you do!

It’s racist to want to limit the election to citizens! Trudeau, you crack me up! Funniest comic ever, right after Garfield.