[EL] More on the Voter Impersonation Fraud Case in Fort Worth

[Paul Gronke]

Kathay

My own intuition is that biometric identification would run smack into traditional American suspicion of centralized authority and governmental power.

But I agree with Rick on this issue (for what that's worth!  ;-)  ), I think biometric identification is coming to things like our ATM machines, computer security, etc.  It would seem to avoid the "who owns a physical ID" issue, but of course someone has to collect and maintain the biometrics!  As with many issues in election administration, theory and practice may be at odds.

As an aside, I recall the first time I saw biometric identification--humorously but not surprisingly, when I was still on the faculty at Duke and they built a new temple to Coach K.  It had the first thumbprint identifiers in order to limit access to the players and coaches.  We learned that they were actually cheaper to program and maintain than the "card swipe" entry that was otherwise on campus.  (I'm not sure why or if this is broadly true.)
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Paul Gronke	Ph:   503-517-7393
                        Fax: 503-661-0601

Professor, Reed College
Director, Early Voting Information Center
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd
Portland OR 97202

On May 3, 2012, at 11:20 AM, Kathay Feng wrote:

> I am interested in the reasons why a thumbprint or other biometric would be good/bad for policy reasons as an identifier or deterrent to the rare case of impersonation.  Lori?
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lori Minnite <lminnite at gmail.com>
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> Date: Thu, 03 May 2012 10:50:34 
> To: law-election at UCI.edu<law-election at uci.edu>
> Subject: [EL] More on the Voter Impersonation Fraud Case in Fort Worth
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