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For those of you who would like a full fact check, and analysis of the issue, you are welcome to read the full article.

For a simple Fact Check on Sarah Silverman’s statements on her “Let my People Vote” Video, enjoy.[break][break]

  • Sarah begins by stating that the new set of State Voter ID Laws target specific group of people; Blacks, the poor, the elderly and students.

Obviously the new laws do not in any way directly target any group or race. They simply require some sort of photo ID in order to vote. The US until this election, was one of the only developed countries on earth where no ID whatsoever was required to vote.

The laws vary in detail from state, but share in common that all accept virtually all state and federal issued photo IDs. Most also have exemptions for the disabled, the elderly and others.[break][break]

  • Sarah explains that the four groups affected, blacks, students, the poor and the elderly are all Obama voters.

While it is generally true that US blacks and students favor Obama, the case is not so for the other two groups. The elderly in the US are among the most conservative group in the nation, and currently favor Mitt Romney by a very large 21 point margin.

While the poor (families making less than $36,000 a year total) in total do favor Obama, it is unlikely that their vote would actually help Obama in a general election. The inner city poor that tend to favor Obama in very large numbers are concentrated in cities like Los Angeles and New York. These areas are in states tend to go Democratic in the election anyways, and so Obama gets no additional electoral college votes due their votes.

On the other hand, poor whites (whites are still the largest single ethnic group in the US) spread across many states, especially in hundreds of rural counties throughout the nation favor Romney by large margins. These rural counties are critical for the electoral college map of any Republican campaign. Removing poor voters from the polls would hurt Romney much more than it would Obama.

When you consider the lower end of the middle income group, slightly above the poor mentioned above, Romney currently has an edge over Obama of 4 points. When considering only whites, the edge is a very large 19 points, larger than the edge he enjoys among rich whites (14 points). Again, unlikely group the Republicans would want to block out.[break][break]

  • Silverman stressed that the voting is a “free and anonymous civil right” implying that anonymous somehow prohibits ID requirements.

The anonymous part of the civil right means that you do not have to tell anyone WHO you voted or even IF you voted. However, only citizens who have registered to vote are allowed to vote, and voters are ALWAYS asked their name and crossed out in list, even when no ID is required. This is to ensure only valid voters voters, and no on votes more than once.

This has never been anonymous. It is just currently in most states based solely on the “honor system” where cheating is easy. Asking a person for ID is simply asking for proof for the question that is already currently asked in all states “Who are you?”[break][break]

  • Silverman implies that only Americans with Driver’s Licences will be able to vote (besides gun owners of course).

This could not be further from the truth. The state laws accept ALL state issued and Federal photo IDs in addition to a few others (like student IDs). Of course, you have to be a resident of the state in question and be registered (so a Texas soldier can’t vote with his military ID in New York, just like he couldn’t with a driver’s licence).

Concealed Carry Licences and similar gun permits are simply ONE of may state issued photo IDs. Since the laws mean to be as INCLUSIVE as possible, they accept all state or federal issued photo IDs. Should gun licenses not be accepted simply because they ALSO happen to allow the citizen to carry a weapon? Any state issued ID that shows your name and picture is accepted, period, there is no specific preference towards them.

Sarah Silverman uses the fact that gun permits are ALSO accepted as a method to manipulate the viewer’s aversion for guns into accepting a false conclusion.[break][break]

  • 21 million Americans do not have driver’s licenses, and they will not, she implies, be able to vote.

Ironically, the 21 million “Americans” she points out do not have driver’s licences and will not be able vote really won’t, and that is the point of the law. They are not US citizens!

In 2010 there were 234 million people in the US 18 and older. There was also 210 million licensed drivers. By subtracting the total over 18 population of the US in the last 2010 census, by the total number of licensed drivers that same year (and adding a couple of million that we can grant to compensate for licensed drivers 16-7 that cannot vote), one can more or less arrive at the 21 million figure she uses.

However, the US census counts all people living in the US including green card holders, legal foreign workers and illegal aliens; all of which are not allowed to vote.

The actual percent of 18 and older US citizens eligible to vote that do not have a valid driver’s licence is extremely small. About 99% of eligible voters over 18 are licensed. Of those that are not, virtually ALL of them have another valid form of photo ID.

All the states that are now requiring ID at the voting booth, also offer free IDs; this is a constitutional requirement.[break][break]

  • Mike Turzai’s comments prove that the Republicans want to steal the election with these laws.

This is the truly absurd (and highly efficient) part of the video. After stating the previously described lies and factual distortions, Silverman outraged shows a clip of the House Majority leader apparently “admitting”  his guilt.

When you take a step back from the distortion, you see he admits nothing except the obvious. Neither the Democrats nor Republicans think the new Voter ID Laws will have NO effect, or neither would be so supportive or so opposed to them.

Obviously they do have an effect; namely they stop some voter fraud and stop most illegal aliens from voting. The Democrats are trying to paint the effect as stopping legitimate voters from voting which is not so.

Most illegal aliens would support Obama and the Democrats, and so this is what they are after. Turzai was simply stating what Republicans openly believe. Pennsylvania, just like other states, is currently very close in the polls, and Turzai believes that if only citizens vote, Romney can come out victorious. This of course, includes blacks, students and other left leaning groups voting… otherwise it wouldn’t be close but rather a landslide.

However, with the election being close as it is, with voter fraud and illegal aliens voting as well (all heavily towards Obama), then this could cause Romney the state.

It is sad that such a statement can be made with the “evil” words all being put in by the reader’s minds… Turzai said nothing of blacks, students, elderly or the poor… he openly said he thought Voter ID could win Romney the election because it will stop or at least curtail voter fraud.

Basically, every actual statement and manipulative implication Sarah Silverman makes in her video is utterly false.

 

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5 responses to “Sarah Silverman Voter Suppression Fact Check”

  1. Anonymous says:

    only…age does have a factor in who votes…our parents generation may vote more conservative, but their parents didn’t. And Democrats DO say that the restrictions will change outcomes in the election. I can go on about your ‘blog’ post, but you don’t even have anything backed or cited…you’re as bad as her video was.

    • That is what I said, that both Democrats and Republicans both openly state it will have an effect… otherwise neither would be so opposed or supportive of it. Due to the length of the article as you can see… I did try to keep unnecessary citations out, but every fact stated is thoroughly checked. Point to anything I stated that you disagree with or are curious about, and I can direct you to sources.

  2. Yaelle Cohen says:

    what an informative article! thanks

  3. Andy Torres says:

    college ID is NOT a valid form of ID at the polls, and you would be doing your self a favor to check the facts before publishing what amounts to an outright lie.. That’s a big point of concern when concealed carry permits are valid as voter ID but a student ID is not.

    • I can only say the same thing in return, check the facts prior to publishing. The reason concealed carry permits would be valid along with ALL other state issued forms of ID is because exactly that fact; they are state issued. So any and all state issued IDs work. The student ID card is given to you by a school, not the government though it could be a state or private school. But in order to be as inclusive as possible, student IDs ARE overwhelmingly accepted.

      The laws we are talking about are state by state and they vary state by state. But take any of the “controversial” ones on the news recently, and they all accept student ID from any accredited college or university in their state.

      Take the infamous Kansas voter ID Law, takes student ID (Accepted forms of Voter ID in Kansas)

      The following new state laws, some of which are not in effect due to the lawsuits and the Obama administration fighting them, ALL accept Student Voter ID:
      Alabama
      Florida
      Idaho
      Michigan
      New Hampshire

      Check out the facts here if you’d like.
      Let’s put it a different way. In every single state of the union, any and all forms of Student ID are fine for the 2012 election with the following exceptions:

      1. In Indiana and Georgia, student ID from any public or state school is fine, but private school IDs are not. This is because there is no uniform standard form of ID among the many private schools, and they are not state issued, in essence not very secure. The poll workers would not be familiar with many nor know how to spot valid ones from invalid. They also may or may not have addresses, expiration dates, etc. Hopefully the well-off kids of the private schools can afford the FREE state IDs that are being issued. Or perhaps the Democrats will want to say there that the GOP wants to discriminate against richer kids from private schools and make sure poorer kids from state schools do vote.

      2. Tennessee is the only state where in 2012 student IDs will bot be accepted at the booth.

      South Carolina also passed a law which did not accept them, but it has been blocked by the DOJ and the courts.

      So in this election, there will be one out of 50 states that do not accept student IDs, and a couple that will not accept student IDs from private schools.

      So the blanket statement that student IDs are not accepted is in fact the outright lie.

      A student is just as capable if not more capable of getting a regular state issued ID, just like everyone else. Especially since there are free IDs available in all states that require Voter ID. And so there is nothing wrong with holding them to the same standard. Accepting student ID from a private school would be like accepting any other private ID, like the ID a bowling club prints out. If the interest is to secure the integrity of the system, they should not be accepted. But no matter, if that is your whole issue with theses laws, then you should be against only one of them; the Tennessee law, and perhaps the South Carolina law which was blocked so far anyways. But instead, Democrats are using the Tennessee argument to be against ALL the voter ID state laws, even though they accept student IDs.

      Thanks for the comment, I hope these facts are helpful.

      Concealed Carry permits are allowed everywhere as they are not only a state issued ID, but one of the most difficult forms of ID to get, why would they not be allowed? All IDs issed by the state are allowed, why would that single one be an exception? Because you don’t like guns? What does that have to do with voting?

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