My mother doesn't live in Indiana, so she won't be disenfranchised by
this. However, proving citizenship is harder than you think. I decided to
take Mom on a cruise to Alaska last summer. The trip included a few
forays into Canada and the cruise ship required a passport or birth
certificate for boarding -- the usual requirement for proof of
citizenship for driver's licenses, voter id or the new medicaid law. At
89, my mom was born in the era of home births and belated birth
regisration. Additionally, that was the time of local recordkeeping with
no mandate to send records to state clearinghouses. Sadly, the records of
Round Prairie township have been destroyed. Therefore no birth
certificate.
Two of my sisters and I spent nearly six months trying to get a new birth
certificate for her. We got her elementary school records, we got
affidavits from people who knew her parents and church records.
Unfortunately, she's a baptist -- and Baptist's don't do infant baptism
(an acceptable substitute) Despite many trips to many different county,
state and federal offices, scores of forms and a stack of applications 2
inches high, my mother still has no birth certificate nor proof of
citizenship.
We went on the cruise anyway, trusting in the idea that customs would not
fear an 89 year old woman in a wheelchair. They didn't. However, if
such an ID law passed in Minnesota, my mother would be
disenfranchised.
RuthAlice
At 06:11 PM 4/18/2006, JBoppjr@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated
4/18/2006 6:21:39 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, david.j.becker@comcast.net
writes:
- a complete dismissal of the potential
for voters to be actually disenfranchised by the law (which will rectify
itself soon enough, sadly, when thousands of voters will verifiably be
disenfranchised during the next election), all of which give plaintiffs
plenty to work with on appeal.
What is noteworthy to me is the fact that the Plaintiffs could not
come up with one person who would be disenfranchised by this
law. If there really were thousands of these potential voters, you
would think that they could find just one. So much hyperbole, I
think.
James Bopp Jr.
Bopp Coleson & Bostrom
1 South 6th Street
Terre Haute, IN 47807
voice: 812-232-2434
fax: 812-235-3685
cell: 812-243-0825
jboppjr@aol.com
RuthAlice Anderson
Admin & Finance Manager
Western States Center
PO Box 40305
Portland, OR 97240
ph: 503-228-8866 ext. 107
fax: 503-228-1965
e-mail: rutha@wscpdx.org
http://www.westernstatescenter.org