Tennessee Resident: I Really Had To Fight To Get A Free Voter ID

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/tennessee_resident_testifies_its_tough_to_get_a_free_voter_id.php

Updated: 4:07PM

Most people would have just paid the $8 fee to obtain a photo ID required to vote in Tennessee. Not Lee Campbell. The retired teacher and his wife fought for their right to a free photo ID and on Monday went to Capitol Hill to complain about what he called a “poll tax.”

Campbell, a Utah native who taught and served as a teacher and a guidance counselor for 42 years and has voted in every presidential election since 1964, testified before a panel sponsored by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that he “experienced first-hand the harmful impact of all these voting changes that are springing up across America.”

Campbell said he had to “fight for my right to have a voter ID be given to me according to the law’s intent — FREE.”

“I traveled to my local DMV and I approached the worker at the information desk and stated that my wife was here and wanted to obtain the FREE voter ID,” Campbell said. “The person responded with a non verbal sigh, a sigh in effect indicated ‘oh no, not that.’ The worker then suggested why not just get a duplicate license for a fee of $8? Cognizant of the fact that a senior citizen friend, Mr. Steve Blankenship of Murfreesboro, in the previous month had PAID the $8 fee, I replied, ‘no, we want the FREE voter photo.’”

video at link

The requirements for accessing the ID, even if "free," can be very costly, monetarily and in people's time and bodies.

Even if there was not a big hassle to avoid paying the $8, this would still be a poll tax.

An elderly woman was taken from an assisted living facility to the DMV. She had to be taken back home because she needed her birth certificate. They returned to the DMV where the ID was issued.
It's at least 10 miles from where she lives to the DMV. I don't know how long she had to wait in line or what they charged her.

:kick:

the state safe for rethuglican the RW ideology to flourish: up your 'effin' noses with rubber hoses. :patriot: