As Republicans push for new voting restrictions around the country, a handful of Democrats have coalesced around an impromptu idea: placing a photo on Social Security cards.
U.N. ambassador and civil rights activist Andrew Young — who chairs a nonpartisan voting rights group calledWhy Tuesday? — buttonholed President Obama and two of his predecessors in Texas this week in an effort to win their support for the concept. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter endorsed the idea, while the White House declined to comment.
Update: Michael Hiltzik thinks this is a terrible idea.
8 comments:
If Costco can do it, and the DMV (a government agency), why not SSA? Please smile.
Dump yet another task and need for more quipment on SSA field offices. An absolutely brillant idae as everyone knows FO staff have plenty of free time... NOT
SSA has been saddled doing HHS' work in Medicare, DHS' work in verifying identity, etc., etc. There is a breaking point ...
The fact that there is well-documented voter fraud in many areas of the country should not be used to foist this on SSA. Let the states, who, after all, are responsible for voting procedures and verification, do their job.
Who needs another baby photo?
12:24- "well-documented voter fraud in many areas of the country" ???
Ummm, no. No there isn't.
12:24pm Like the only Documented cases of Voter Fraud, is Republicans trying to VOTE Twice, those Republicans are in Prison... :p
SSN's are issued at birth. To make this feasible, you would have to require that replacement cards be issued when the numberholder became old enough to work, then again at various additional ages to keep up with maturation. This is a dumb idea--reissuing literally hundreds of millions of SSN cards to add/update photos is a massive waste of time, effort and money.
To what point and purpose would a photo aid the Agency in administering the Social Security Act?
There are already ample regulations and procedures on establishing identity. Social Security cards are not a universal tracking system for identity. Never was, never should be. It's the same argument against tracking the race of a claimant, having the capability to do so does not mean SSA should do it.
Besides, with the push to online filing, what is gained by matching a photo ID to the actual person? To reduce identity theft and help employer's make sure they are taking the SSN of the actual worker?
Hint: The employer's who need to be doing this don't care about the right SSN/identity and such photo IDs are heavily counterfeited now that SSA joining in would be a waste of time and 3 decades behind current anti-fraud protections.
So the democrat poll worker that voted six (6) times in Ohio doesn't count??
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