May 8, 2014

Creating A Catch 22 Leading To Loss Of Benefits And Voter Suppression?

     From an e-mail I received:
I am a ... SSA [Social Security Administration] field office employee in Ohio. SSA has initiated the process of deny[ing] numident printouts to individuals (A numident printout is a computer extract of information that is taken from the original application for a Social Security card).
Individuals need these printouts in order to get state ID or Driver license. Additionally individuals use these for HEAP [Home Energy Assistance Program] or Food stamps among other benefits. Individuals now must present photo ID this year [to] SSA to obtain the paper verification. Prior to this year all an individual would do is answer personal identifiable information to the SSA employee to obtain the copy. 
This has created a catch 22 where local motor vehicle bureau require the numident to get an ID but SSA requires a gov't photo ID to get a numident.  The public and field office employees are frustrated by the process.  More cynically, this process will aid in voter suppression, in particular to the urban poor. ...
The urban centers of Ohio delivered the votes for the 2012 election.  New voter restriction/suppression will be directly assisted by numident issuance and office closing. These changes will greatly affect the electorate in Ohio and elsewhere.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I call BS.

In many states, numident printouts aren't even acceptable evidence of identity as they can be too easily faked.

All the person needs is a letter from the state saying a drivers license/state ID can't be issued within 10 days. Then, SSA can move on to other forms of identification documents to be used in issuing a SSN card.

In short, if you don't have proof of identity, you can't prove who you are and you don't have a right to a card. End of story.

It is people like you who allow the identity theft industry to flourish in this country.

Anonymous said...

Oh come on, Ohio was the state where the poll worker voted six (6) times for Obama in the last election. Suppress votes in Ohio? Hmmmmm, might be a good idea. I wonder how Ohio likes Obama now since he has messed with their coal industry???

Anonymous said...

This is nonsense. Providing a numident printout always required the presentation of proper id. If any SSA employees were giving them out just by getting the personal info they should have been disciplined. The "numi lite" was a temporary help until the card could be received.

Anonymous said...

@ 8:08AM: That former poll worker was sentenced to prison for 5 years, the crime doesn't fit the sentence, a Judge released the person after less than 1 year was served. Some would impose a lifetime of servitude, 1 year or so is enough, no need to get draconian. Most of the time I've only heard of Republicans doing stupid stuff, requiring an ID is one thing, putting up roadblocks in place to prevent someone from getting said ID is reprehensible and disgusting, not to mention vile...
Poll Worker Who Said She Voted Multiple Times For Obama For Family Members Released Early From Prison

Anonymous said...

11:09AM, at least she should have had to stay in prison for 4 years as that is how long we are stuck with Obama. And there are no roadblocks to getting ID's, however, there is voter fraud..

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @ 10:26 is absolutely correct. This article is either bogus or written by an employee who didn't know his or her job very well.

Anonymous said...

I trust someone who works there not anonymous posters who think they "know" the job

Anonymous said...

http://www.bmv.ohio.gov/acceptable_id_documents.stm
http://www.bmv.ohio.gov/ssn.stm

Anonymous said...

"The urban centers of Ohio delivered the votes for the 2012 election. New voter restriction/suppression will be directly assisted by numident issuance and office closing. These changes will greatly affect the electorate in Ohio and elsewhere."

I thought this was the "Social Security News" blog...the email author seems more interested in party politics than Social Security.

Anonymous said...

if you called the 800 number you could get the numident mailed without showing id and just answering the identifying questions now you can't so the author is correct

Anonymous said...

Don't you think that maybe this is all because of the increase in fraud cases we have seen recently?? Voter fraud just confirms the moral terpitude of teh little guy..

Anonymous said...

to anon 3:11--if that is true, the 800 number was committing a punishable offense--SSA rules have expressly prohibited providing ssn's based on a phone call for quite some time. For one, there is no way to verify the address of the requestor. You cannot even verbally confirm an SSN based on a phone call, let alone provide written verification.