Caroline Fredrickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, editorializes in the pages of USA Today, complaining about the recommendations of the Carter-Baker commission, that would require a photo ID to vote in elections. She says the commission is "on the wrong track."
As Supreme Court Justice Stanley Matthews wrote in a landmark case in 1886, the right to vote is fundamental because it is "preservative of all rights." Requiring a photo ID to vote, as the Carter-Baker commission recommends, would have a chilling effect on voter participation. It would block some Americans from the political process.
You are right, it would. It block following Americans from voting:
1) the dead ones
2) the ones that vote twice
3) the ones that don't exist (excluding the dead ones)
And coincidentally, these three voting blocks all vote Democrat (or attempted to register as Democrats).
The Carter-Baker recommendations are so restrictive that even a valid U.S. passport or photo ID issued by the U.S. military isn't good enough. Voters must have a driver's license that meets the requirements of the controversial Real ID Act, which set strict standards for obtaining state-issued licenses.
Such a requirement would disproportionately impact poor people, the disabled, the elderly and people of color, who are all statistically less likely to have driver's licenses. The commission recommended an alternative photo ID be available for non-drivers, but no infrastructure is in place to make those available, particularly for the elderly. In addition, there was no cost assessment in the report.
From the Executive Summary of the report, this is not the case, at all.
To prevent the ID from being a barrier to voting, we recommend that states use the registration and ID process to enfranchise more voters than ever. States should play an affirmative role in reaching out to non-drivers by providing more offices, including mobile ones, to register voters and provide photo IDs free of charge. There is likely to be less discrimination against minorities if there .....
full article from pardonmyenglish.com
Security
Thales wins Moroccan ID cards contract
ID cards will control Big Brother state, says
Clarke
full article
from telegraph.co.uk
Employers to use ID cards to check on applicant
identities
3.7m people collect National ID cards in Lagos
Morocco TIMES 9/29/2005 | 12:41 am
The French company Thales has announced it has won a contract from the
Moroccan government to produce and personalise national identity cards based
on contactless smart card technologies.
The €120 million contract the company signed with the Moroccan national
security service (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Nationale) will provide
the world's first national-scale ID system of the kind, said Thales in a
press release issued on Tuesday.
This type of ID cards will have a guaranteed lifespan of ten years and will
ensure maximum document security.
The system will comprise equipment and software for ID document production,
high-security consumables and connectivity with the Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (AFIS), which acquires digital fingerprints and
compares them with a fingerprint database.
The new ID cards will include both personal details and biometric data and
meet security requirements concerning travel documents and control of
migration flows.
Thales will manage production of the cards for four years, during which 20
million cards will be produced.
The same company is also expected to win another contract which will enable
it to upgrade about 20 Moroccan Mirage fighter jets.
A preliminary agreement has already been signed by the Moroccan Premier,
Driss Jettou, and his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin.
The French Premier said on Tuesday that the deal will be finalised in the
coming weeks with the expected visit to Morocco of the French Defence
Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie.
full article
from moroccotimes.com
By Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent
(Filed: 28/09/2005)
Identity cards will not create the "Big Brother state", but will instead bring
it under control, Charles Clarke claimed yesterday.
The Home Secretary urged delegates to support his ID card legislation on the
grounds that it would make it easier for people to protect themselves against
identity theft.
Ministers originally proposed ID cards primarily as a means of combating
terrorism and benefit fraud.
But yesterday, in a change of tack, Mr Clarke defended the scheme mainly on the
grounds that it would benefit individuals as consumers and citizens. "ID cards
are controversial, of course, but we all need to understand that we already live
in a society where there are enormous databanks of information about all of us,
whether held by financial institutions, employers, passports and driving
licences, health and education authorities or criminal justice agencies," Mr
Clarke said.
"Moreover, we all face many occasions where we need to prove our identity,
whether it is to open a bank account, take out a mortgage, claim a benefit, pass
through a border control, get a criminal records bureau clearance or many other
basic transactions."
Mr Clarke, who is thought to be more sceptical about ID cards than David
Blunkett, his predecessor, or Tony Blair, said the Government's proposals would
make these transactions "easier for the individual".
The Home Office is working with employers to encourage them
to use ID cards for verifying the identities of their staff.
A working group of 50 organisations, including major banks, pharmaceutical
companies and the Royal Mail, have for the past 12 months been investigating how
the cards could be used in business.
Employers are likely to use ID cards to check the identity of new employees
against the central population register to ensure they are entitled to work, the
Home Office said.
Under the plans, one of the first applications will be to use ID cards to
automate checks against the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) database, reducing the
turnaround time from four months to 72 hours.
Katherine Courtney, ID cards programme director at the Home Office, said the
cards would improve efficiency in CRB checks.
"Last year, more than 500 people appealed against their disclosure and 500
people were given the wrong record," she said. "The CRB has worked with us on a
complete redesign."
Government departments would be early adopters of ID card applications - for
example, for secure entry or authentication for access to IT systems.
Robert Bond, a partner at law firm Faegre and Benson, said ID cards could prove
useful for HR, but warned that the way employers access or use information from
them could lead to problems.
"We've seen a recent case in France where a company was taken to court because
it was using an ID card scheme to monitor staff," he said.
The [UK Identity Cards] Bill could also place an unnecessary administrative
burden on employers, as they may be responsible for updating certain pieces of
information."
The TUC has raised concerns that ID cards - which are expected to come into use
by 2008 - could lead to discrimination against ethnic minority workers or those
suffering from certain illnesses.
full article
from personneltoday.com
Sonoma County plans to issue ID cards to
medical marijuana patients
SANTA ROSA, Calif. Sonoma County plans to charge medical
marijuana patients 80 dollars a year for I-D cards designed to protect them from
arrest by state and local authorities.
The fee is expected to be approved by the Board of Supervisors. It would cover
annual administrative costs to supply cards to the county's medical pot users.
The county plans to start accepting applications for the I-D cards in November.
The cards were mandated by the state Legislature two years ago to clarify the
voter-approved initiative that allowed marijuana for medical purposes.
full article
from kesq.com
By Stella Odueme
REPORTER, Lagos
Department of National Civic Registration (DNCR) said 3.7 million out of the
estimated five million people that registered in Lagos have collected their
National Identity cards in the ongoing distribution exercise.
The Coordinator of DNCR in Lagos, Mrs. Gloria Ogunjobi disclosed in an interview
with Daily Independent in her office on Monday.
She said most of the local government areas have nearly completed the
distribution of the cards in the state.
“About 3.7 people have collected their cards in Lagos and more people would
collect today (Monday), for instance in Shomolu Local Government, the collection
exercise is almost through, while in Mushin council, there are lots of people
that have not collected as a result of the density of the area,” she said.
Ogunjobi said owing to the density of population in some local governments,
people are experiencing some difficulties in collecting their cards.
She denied claims that the distribution exercise was marred as a result of the
inadequate personnel and logistics.
“The distribution exercise has never run into problems because of inadequate
personnel, because the councils assisted us with some staff to facilitate the
process of collection,” she said.
She expressed hope that the remaining 1.3 people would collect their cards
before the end of the year. She urged people who have not registered in densely
populated areas where bulks of the cards have not been distributed to call at
the state secretariat at Aluasa for their registration. The coordinator,
however, added that it is better to register at the nearest local government to
ease the process of collection.
“We always advise people to register at the nearest local government
full article
from independentng.com
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