The following is a comment I made on a friend’s Facebook page. This friend supports the Pennsylvania voter ID law. One of the things she said in support of this law is that it’s not an inconvenience to go get a license, so people should stop being lazy . That line of thinking comes from someone who can’t imagine or can’t remember what it’s like to be poor. Really poor. So poor that a car is a fantasy, and if a car is fantasy, why have a license? And when you’re working two jobs, and taking 3 buses and the train to get to and from, who has the time? It’s not lazy, it’s life. Point is it shouldn’t be that hard to vote.

Anyway – here’s the comment:

The country I grew up in valued the right to vote. It was an important moment in the history of this country when women and then blacks got the right. People died for that right. For the first time in my lifetime, this is an effort to take away that right from some people so that it’s easier for Romney to win. Basically, if you can’t win by the current rules, change the rules.

The reason republicans like the law is because it gives them a better chance to win. This is the same reason I like the second wild card in baseball this year; because it gives the Phillies a better chance to win. But this is not a game. These are our rights that men and women fought and died for.

There was apparently one valid case of voter fraud in PA in history. Does that justify the estimated $11 million dollars that it will cost to put this law in place? Let me put this in perspective: state governments have conducted studies to determine if seatbelts in large school buses would make a difference, the answer was yes they would. So why aren’t there seat-belts on large school buses – because it was determined by a study in Alabama that the $32 million dollars it would cost to install the belts wasn’t worth the one life it would save in that state. So they wouldn’t spend $32 million to save a life, but PA will spend $11 million to stop one case of voter fraud?

The motive behind the law is enough for me to dismiss any perceived benefit. Even if it helped my candidate – I wouldn’t be for it. My rights are worth too much to give them away.