You are very correct. If you can not provide a photo ID, you should not vote. Gloria

This blog posting is 100% opinion.

I disagree 100% with these opinions.

I agree you should have a photo ID to cash checks,to open accounts, drive, rent anything, why not to vote make voting 1 day again and make everyone stick their fingers in the purple ink like some countries do it

I agree with one part and disagree with another. Voting should take place on a Saturday so people have better access to the polls. Tuesday was originally chosen back in the day so that farmers could travel to the polls on Monday and be back in the fields by Thursday. True story.
I disagree with the weak case made of voter fraud in this past election. If an 86 year old is all you can dig up amongst the millions of votes cast, then you really have a weak argument. The truth is that the only significant incidence of voter fraud in the past election was perpetrated by a company with a shady record of registration fraud. This company was hired and paid for by the Republican National Committee. An email from the committee to the company suggested that they change their company name so past indiscretions would not come to light. Subsequently, they were charged with voter fraud in the state of Florida by a Republican Attorney General. But, who cares to look at the facts these days.

Good thinking! Everyone knows the Black Panthers take off on Saturday. But they also don't celebrate Christmas. I think we should vote on Christmas, since there's no wiggle room there. And no Black Panthers. So we could still go to the mall on Saturday. Plus those lazy government workers don't get paid on Christmas, so they might as well vote then. Maybe we could all get stickers in exchange for sharing our photos IDs and social security numbers with the poll workers. Instead of saying I OHIO VOTING, they could say I CHRISTMAS VOTING. Whaddya say?

Well WishIwereinOhio, I'm mighty glad you're not in Ohio. I'm not one to flag comments but you should be embarrassed.

Why is there even an arguement on presenting a valid ID? It just makes sense ! Why would anyone be against this? Except for maybe a fugitive from the law? Show up and possibly get captured? Why is it so, so, difficult to present an identification, if your legitament? geeze..........

I have one question: At the beginning of your screed you say voting is a privilege, while at the end you call it a right, do you really know? I'll give you the answer - It's a right! Let's keep it that way and stop trying to limit people's right to vote by phony voter fraud suggestions.

Thankfully this is America, land of universal suffrage.

And it just seems you don't like people of color, especially if their color is black. Or Black...

this halfwit is the most clueless airhead that live sin avon lake..lets start off your own blog contradicting yourself!

"America needs another holiday--Voter Day for the Presidential election. One day, and perhaps a Saturday. "

how do you expect to be taken seriously when you are that stupid?

Funny how ONLY the racist homophobic republicans want to suppress or reverse voter laws and keep everything in the 20th century...seriously, the 1950's and 60's have long since past..get with the times already...

Pathc should be ashamed of themselves as well.. quit promoting this morons blogs..why cant you people see she basically put avon lake on the map in a very bad light for being insanely stupid with her moronic blog about deer in avon lake that went viral..I will leave patch altogether and strongly encourage as many people to leave it as well both on your site and on facebook if you keep promoting this conservative one sided only nutjob..Do not underestimate the power of social media..you would think you would alienate this loser like most republicans did with bush,mccain and romney when they ruined the image of the party..do us all a favor and do just that..

How are you going to stop 'dead people' from voting 'many times, many days'?

I watch cable TV. YOU CAN'T STOP THEM!!!!
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"Voting has become marred with Black Panther’s threatening voters, and a great deal of voter fraud. Illegal aliens, nuns, the educated, those unregistered, and dead people --all voting many times, many days."

Black Panthers, illeagle aliens....and....nuns? I so enjoy Ms Obrien Wilhelm's rants.. most enjoyable

Voter suppression is just plain wrong. If a photo ID is to be required for voting, then student IDs should be accepted and state non-driver IDs should be available for free for state residents. I see nothing wrong with early voting or absentee voting. What is wrong with making voting as convenient as possible? Its very important to get all this special interest money out of political campaigns. Candidates know they probably cannot win election without raising huge amounts of money. The people who provide this money have an agenda and the candidates who accept the money are indebted. Once elected, they serve the interests of the NRA, Oil and Gas Industries, Health Care conglomerates, and other corporate interests .... above the public interest.

Look, if a photo I.D. we're offered to the poor and elderly with enough lead time, accessibility and affordability, then I would support it. But, this idea was proffered by a party who hired a company in the last election whose business model is voter fraud. This idea was pushed by a party whose Republican state legislatures passed rules that created 5 hour lines at the polls. A party who has gerrymandered districts throughout this country to like like strings of spaghetti to suit their interests. A party whose "golden boy" Rick Perry in Texas stopped accepting student I.D.'s as legitimate I.D. While accepting gun licenses. This I.D. nonsense was forwarded by the Republican Party in the context of a Trojan Horse in an effort to steal an election. Like their other issues, Republican's need only to locate the nearest mirror to find the source of their misery.

Oh wow. How did this come up again?

Voter I.D laws had absolutely no effect on the last election. Nor did Voter Fraud. The people of the country spoke clearly, and gave President Obama a strong mandate.

My advice is quit with these ideas that clearly don't work. Start reaching out to voters who aren't far right conservative, and white.

I only read this woman's blogs for the laffs. She's hilarious!

Um, this is an act, isn't it?

I have a question for those who consider voter ID "suppression" or "disenfrachisement" of voter's right to vote.

Under our constitution, there is no one amendment that is of greater authority than another in the eyes of justice. (ie. the 4th amendment is no more/less important than the 5th amendment).

That being said, I am mandated to provide a govt. issued photo ID to purchase a firearm. My right to purchase a firearm as a citizen is very clearly stated under the 2nd amendment of the US constitution. So if asking someone to show a govt. issued photo ID in order to exercise their right to vote is now considered "disenfrachisement," then please tell me how you are also not "suppressing" my right to own a firearm by asking me to do the same exact thing when I, as a legal, law abiding citizen, go to a store to purchase a gun?

Cue response that says "No..no..no..guns are so different! Not even the same!" Actually, they are exactly the same. BOTH are constitutional rights that shall not be infringed. My right to bear arms is no less or more important than my right to vote, yet we are okay with the ID law for gun purchases why? BECAUSE IT MAKES FREAKING SENSE! We want to know that you are a legal US citizen if you are purchasing a firearm! So what the hell is wrong with wanting to know if you are a legal US citizen if you are VOTING! I love the squirming, word game logic that tries to explain the difference here.

Can I please see the documentation to support your "40% enforcement" claim (btw..documentation does not equal your friend's blog or an editorial from the huffington post)?

Do you have to fill out a questionnaire every time you vote...regarding your mental health, past, etc? You have to fill that out each and every time you purchase a firearm and present your ID. So again, tell me, using your logic that asking a voter to present voter ID at the poll is disenfrachising their right to vote, how is asking a gun purchaser to present ID and fill out questionnaires is not disenfranchising their right to purchase a firearm?

So if it wasn't a big deal to show a valid photo ID to register to vote (which is not true whatsoever in every county), why is it now a big deal to show your ID again at the poll?

Garry, your argument is a horrible attempt at legitimizing the claim that people are suppressed by having to present ID to vote. It is common sense. We want to make sure you are who you say you are, whether you are voting or you are buying a gun. There is nothing you can say to defeat that argument about right to vote v. right to bear arms. That is, unless you care to say that one right is more important than another?

My mind is boggled.

Denial is the word that comes to mind. It's like these people think that the pool of rich white men is going to grow enough to give them a general election. That's never going to happen. They can't be bothered to reach out to the poor, minorities, or young people. Personally I'm doubting we will ever see another Republican president in our lifetimes.

"Illegal aliens, nuns, the educated, those unregistered, and dead people --all voting many times, many days."

Who knew "the educated" were wreaking such havoc come election day?

Granted out public education system has some serious issues, it is still educating the youth of our nation. That tosses a whole lot of people into the Educated bin. So, I ponder, should only imbeciles who can't read be able to vote?
I guess I can see why you are afraid of nuns. They stand for love.

Republicans should think about moderating their views and getting back to the center in American politics. I see that all 8 republican members of the senate judiciary committee just voted against renewal of the assault weapons ban. I wonder what their solution is to this big problem of gun violence in America. Probably, just get used to it ..... or stop watching the news .... so you don't see whats going on.

Mr Thomas, You seem to have a very expansive, liberal interpretation of the second amendment. Are you okay with individuals owning automatic weapons? Rocket propelled grenades? Chemical weapons? Tactical nuclear weapons? There needs to be some limit on the firepower of weapons that are allowed for civilian use. The reason is that a certain percentage of these semi-automatic assault weapons will always fall into the hands of criminals or mentally deranged people. Our society needs to take some reasonable actions to stop this carnage. We had an assault weapons ban previously from 1994 to 2004 and the law was never found to be unconstitutional.

They already have a monopoly on force though. They can send a smartbomb through your bedroom window with a fighter jet, helicopter, unmanned drone, destroyer, submarine. The list goes on.

Believe me I fully support the constitution. I just think it's foolish to assume the average Americans stockpile of weapons can touch the most advanced military in the world.

Well I concede that you raise a good point. The only advantage we would have in a rebellion situation is strength in numbers.

Smart bombs are just one tool at their disposal though. The machine gun on a black hawk helicopter will destroy your entire house in 1 spray. Than there are things like cluster bombs, artillery and tank rounds.

Military spending in this country beats all other competition by a wide margin. I forget the exact ratio. You would have to add up the military spending of the next 5-10 most populated countries to even compare to the U.S military spending.

I'm betting you are all for that military spending too.

Mr. Troy,
are you assuming that the two largest, homogeonous gun cultures in the US today; the National Guard and the Army would 100% support the destruction by a government of the Constitution they are sworn to protect and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic? Do you admit any possibility that some of those forces might be pro-gun ownership and not obey orders from that government?

I thought this was a blog about voter I.D.?

The current voter ID requirements in Ohio are working just fine. If a voter does not have a photo ID .... they can present a current utility bill or bank statement. They also have to sign the register. They are US citizens and they are registered to vote. They have a constitutional right to vote ..... whether they have a photo ID or not.

Admittedly, this post kind of makes me wish we could reinstate literacy tests as a condition for voting. Does anyone edit this blog?

Well when it all comes down to it on the Presidential Elections anyways. its the Electoral College that gets the Final say....

I love this patch and this writer. thank God she wrote that deer article. but dont get upset that she gets published, the site traffic must have gone up since her famous article went viral

what ever happens i hope she never proof reads her work. its perfect just the way it is