The Real Id Act

Voter ID laws in the United States have begun to create controversy since the beginning of its adaptations in the early 2000’s. Voter ID laws in the United States is a law that requires U.S. citizens to have a special form of identification in order to vote in an election. The idea with Voter ID laws is that the state must make sure that the laws do not pose any sort of burden on the voters. These laws have been proposed in order to stop voting fraud. However, the institution of Voter ID laws have made trouble in states, including Texas, regarding to the various amount of identification requirements needed.

In 2002, with the intention of updating election technology, hampering voter fraud, and increasing faith in the electoral system, President George W. Bush signed into law the Help America Vote Act (Gerken 14). Since the implementation of this act, controversial voter identification laws have begun springing up all over the country. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, “thirty-one states require all voters to show ID before voting at the polls. In fifteen of these, the ID must include a photo of the voter; in the remaining sixteen, non-photo forms of ID are acceptable” (Voter Identification Requirements). In 2005 Indiana lawmakers passed one of the strictest voter identification laws in the country requiring voters

Some Americans say that this bill promotes racism, discrimination, and shows how the law institutionalizes racial profiling. S.B 1070 has had some similar traits to what has happened in world history with marginalizing a certain race or group of people. Although, this is not nearly as harsh as those historic events, it is very similar to how say the Germans, and Japanese were racially profiled. For instance, many Jewish people living in Germany in the 1930’s were forced to wear a band around their arm with the star of david, signifying that they were Jewish, and this way they were easily noticed. They were forced to wear them everyday, and if not they would get beaten or killed by German law enforcement. The star of david around the arm in this situation would be that similar to proper legalization papers. Just like that the Japanese were also racially profiled in the United States, and put in internment camps during World War II because of their race. Similarly but not as harsh as these historic events the bill allows law enforcement “to verify the immigration status of anyone legally stopped if there is... “reasonable suspicion” of unlawful status” (ACLU), which is unfair because law enforcement can decide to ask everybody that passes by, n some instances Arizona police decide to post up on a stop. It is said that the bill

In 2008, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s law despite lack of evidence of voter fraud. In Texas, however, voter fraud is a real concern. In a column by Greg Abbott, the Texas Attorney General, he states, “In recent years, my office has secured more than 50 voter fraud convictions. Those include a woman who voted in place of her dead mother, a political operative who cast ballots for two people, and a city councilmember who registered foreign nationals to vote in an election decided by 19 votes. Voter fraud is hard to detect, so cases like these are just the tip of the iceberg.” Texas legislature believes that requiring photo identification is a simply way to prevent these fraud issues from occurring. Not everyone agrees with the motives of the

On the other hand, a voter ID card is easy to get -they are often given without a background check, just like getting a driver's license.The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 makes employers show proof in their identity. This means that workers have to prove that they are either American citizens or legal aliens with a work permit.

The Department of Homeland Security website explains the basic information of the REAL ID Act that was passed by congress in 2005. The web site provides important dates such as implementation dates and the dates that all states are required to be in compliance with the Act. It states that the United States Congress feels that the Act sets the standard for regulating new state identification cards and establishes minimum security regulations for the new identification card regarding security enhancements on the identification cards themselves. There is also information pertaining to the phases where citizens without an enhanced driver’s license will not be able to access certain facilities such as restricted areas, nuclear power plants, and

Voter ID laws would further enforce the agenda of the republican party by lessening the strength of democratic voters. “Studies have already shown a significant link between support for voter ID and racial discrimination, among both lawmakers and white voters in general.”(Ingraham, 7 Aug. 2016) Politicians catering to only select demographic groups creates and reinforces a hierarchy apparent to the suppressed demographic groups, causing them to have the outlook that they are repudiated by the

“Who Am I? Developing Character” by Jodi O’Brien is a secondary source. This piece discusses all the different factors that go into someone’s identity. One of Lyon’s main arguments is the benefits of a nation identification card as it pertains to security, convenience, and efficiency. In addition the benefits they have for enhancing security, Lyon says that national ID cards would make governments run more efficiently.

The debate on National Identification card has restarted since the terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The issue of introducing the National Identification Card came into people’s view after a long time hoping that it would reduce the danger of terrorism in the future. United States is not the only one country who is introducing the National Identification Card. There are other hundreds of countries that have already had National Identification Card in use in order to improve security in the country, assist law enforcement and make a delivery of services more efficiently to all the citizens of the nation. People think that introducing the National ID

The method he used to gather data was to ask voters over the internet about their experience while casting a ballot during the 2006 general election and again in the 2008 primaries. It is also pointed out that Ansolabehere is testing the effects of photographic identification requirements on restricting individuals from voting. (Ansolabehere). One conclusion that Ansolabehere made was, “Although the debate over this issue is often draped in the language of the civil and voting rights movements, voter ID appears to present no real barrier to access” (Ansolabehere). This observation is in agreement with both studies presented previously. However, this study made an additional observation about restricting access to minority individuals when it comes to voter ID laws. This study found that “In the 2008 Super Tuesday primary states, 53% of whites were asked to show photo ID, compared with 58% of Hispanics and a staggering 73% of African Americans” (Ansolabehere). Although this static should raise red flags about underlying prejudice in the admittance of minorities, Ansolabehere makes a related observation. He states “In the 2006 survey, out of 22,211 voters only 25 said that they were asked for identification

Back in September, WENY News told you these changes would go in effect this January. However, the Department of Homeland Security is taking more time, to get all states on the same page. This all goes back to 2005, when Congress passed the REAL ID Act. It set stricter security requirements for driver's licenses including driver's licenses

National Identification Card (NID) is not a new idea to the American Public or its politicians. The NID has been up and down the political stream as a means of fighting terrorism, welfare fraud, illegal immigration, crime, census “error”, and a vast variety of other so called crimes that you can think of. The NID once again rising up-stream after the terrible attack on the American soil as (again) the means to protect the American Public but is it capable of doing all it claims to or as a matter of facts it will make us more vulnerable to identity theft and more chaos?

What this unique ID code would do would be to allow Cathy to examine whether Bob has been arrested by any NiBRS participating agency. For instance, let’s say Bob moves to Arizona after successfully completing drug court in 2025 (ten years since his last arrest). At that time, he has not been arrested before. While living in Gilbert, Arizona Bob is arrested for simple assault. His arresting office, John Thomas, fills out his incident report. Using his personal information (social security number, full name, previous residence, etc., John Thomas can search the restricted access data to find whether Bob has been assigned a unique ID. He finds Bob has, and puts that information on the incident report. Once these data are imputed for NIBRS, the

Beginning in the late 70’s, the forgery of identification products has become more and more popular among underage teens. At first, it was just a piece of paper with a simple name and street address. By 1974, it rapidly progressed to birth certificate, which were easy to forge as they did not have a photo. Just a few years later, all U.S states required a photograph to be on all identifications, making it harder for teens to just steal a name and address to become older. Since then, technology has expanded in both forgery and detection. Fake IDs have grown from being sold out of vans to being shipped overseas from secret online websites. Catching a fake has gone from bending it to see if it snaps to having to shine a flashlight upon it and looking for a pattern or scanning it and seeing if it's registered in the system.

Each of us is born into a certain family, background, place, and even culture. Although most of us come into this world in the same way and perhaps even grow up similarly, it is our sense of identity and self that sets us apart from each other. Now some would say that our identity is already chosen for us, we are born with it and it is who we are. You merely grow up with it and learn to accept it, while others would say it is something that you can fight or possibly even change. However the real question lies in how far you are willing to go to make that change, would you solely change your attitude, outlook on life, maybe physical appearance, or would you go as far as to cross the line and commit a crime? Today we will be looking at one of these extremes still active and commonly known as identity fraud.