Relax, Everything is Going to be Okay!

[Handlebar]

Sure people can choose not to vote if they want.

The point was that Daines opposed the Real ID Act for 20 years for whatever reason. According to Montana DOJ, as of late 2025, 58% of driver's licenses are not Real ID compliant. That will be a pretty big lift for those organizations. And probably costly for individuals.

I haven't been to a voting booth in over a decade, hopefully I can continue to vote by mail.

I am sure that it will be a large task, but I think having a more secure voting process is worth it.

 

[mevertsen]

?

You said you expect a lot of the 10 percent are in the 50 percent that dont vote.

The difference between Trump and Harris was 1.5 percent.

If half didnt vote, then we double the 1.5 to 3.

So let's put that 3 percent in the voted camp, and the other 7 percent of that 10 percent into the didnt vote camp, then we get to all registered voters.

And we potentially have a 2000 election on our hands, because it would be that close.

Just pointing out the numbers. 10 percent doesnt seem like a lot.

But that is huge in relation to the 2025 election results. Or most presidential elections for that matter.

 

[jimh406]

I am sure that it will be a large task, but I think having a more secure voting process is worth it.

I agree.

It seems people spend a lot of effort for things they care about. If they don't want to spend hardly any effort to vote, they probably didn't spend any effort to determine how to vote.

 

[SAJ-99]

This guy is voting in Montana this year.

 

[BigHornRam]

You said you expect a lot of the 10 percent are in the 50 percent that dont vote.

The difference between Trump and Harris was 1.5 percent.

If half didnt vote, then we double the 1.5 to 3.

So let's put that 3 percent in the voted camp, and the other 7 percent of that 10 percent into the didnt vote camp, then we get to all registered voters.

And we potentially have a 2000 election on our hands, because it would be that close.

Just pointing out the numbers. 10 percent doesnt seem like a lot.

But that is huge in relation to the 2025 election results. Or most presidential elections for that matter.

I don't think pregnant chads can be counted as a vote.

 

[mevertsen]

I don't think pregnant chads can be counted as a vote.

That wasn't my point.

I was just pointing out the numbers are close.

Take those 10 percent that were mentioned.

Apply it to 2024.

We have no way of knowing who those 10 percent may or may not have voted for.

If we had a Real ID voter requirement in 2024, and 10 percent were eliminated just because of that, hard to say how those cards would have fallen, and who those votes would go for.

 

[sapperJ24]

I am sure that it will be a large task, but I think having a more secure voting process is worth it.

I also support a secure voting process, but it seems that we differ in that I think we already have one based on the number of convicted fraudulent voters out there.

I agree.

It seems people spend a lot of effort for things they care about. If they don't want to spend hardly any effort to vote, they probably didn't spend any effort to determine how to vote.

Effort like voting red/blue no matter who, just pulling the lever for one side? Kidding of course.
If the SAVE Act were passed today, based on seeing the process my wife went through to get a Real ID, I am confident that there would be many women who would not be able to vote in 9 months. This would be through no fault of their own (other than getting married) or lack of effort.

 

[jimh406]

We really don't know how many noncitizens are voting, and we also don't know how many people voted in multiple states. We currently have no way to figure it out.

I know that multiple ballots were sent to houses when the people had moved to another state already. There really wasn't any way to prevent someone from filling the ballot out and returning them.

I do know with certainty that at least one person working at one WA Licensing location encouraged noncitizens to register to vote almost 25 years ago. How many noncitizens were registered?

You are welcome to think it doesn't matter, but there are many elections that are won or lost by less than one percent. It doesn't take much to change an election.

 

[Beignet]

I think its myopic to think that this woman's testimony wasnt rehearsed and performed to push a narrative. I also think its myopic to believe all ICE agents are good and aren't breaking any laws. I think its myopic to believe any part of these protests are organic. Since I think this way im a selfish little twit. 2 wrongs never make a right and our govt is really good at convincing people otherwise.

Dunno if you're actually a selfish little twit. People are often different online than in person. And you do have plenty of posts that are nuanced a bit once you unpack the thought. But, man, there was a post of yours a while back that kinda struck me and made me realize the mentality a lot of folks have today. I forget the exact language, but it was something along the lines of that because a certain subset of society supported the enforcement of mask and vaccine mandates during the pandemic that no one gets the privilege or right of being upset about what they perceive to be violations of their fundamental constitutionally guaranteed liberties. That seemed to me like you were holding onto a rage from a past grievance and using it to justify treating others unfairly because you were treated unfairly.

Human to human, that's not a healthy weight to carry around with you and must be an exhausting way to live.

So, the more I ponder that the more I realize how truly we are living in an era of grievance and retribution politics. All of which is indeed very shortsighted & selfish. Hell, I believe that Il Duce The President very much ran on a platform of "I'll be your retribution." That's pretty weird to me.

Anyway. It is a personal policy of mine to not be mean spirited on the internet or speak to people online in a way that's different from how I would speak to them in-person. So I apologize if it seemed as though I was name calling you, or anyone else on here.

 

[Dougfirtree]

The LWV presents several reasons but I would disagree how compelling they are. The communities they mention in their arguments are very capable of getting valid ID. The assumption made by LWV's that they would be unable to participate in voting because many of them currently lack valid ID's is only valid if you also feel they are not capable of obtaining these ID's should the requirements change. I find that to be ridiculous.

Undoubtedly there's a percentage that would, but I think there are real reasons why so many people don't have one. I don't think it's safe to assume that it's not a big deal for all of these people. And again, remember that this is a solution to a problem that is virtually nonexistent...
And it's not happening in a vacuum. Voter ID is one chapter in a long book of one side proposing ways to increase voter turnout and one side trying to shoot them down. Why making it easier for people to vote is a partisan issue is a concerning question. I'd like to see both sides agree that this is the goal. That's a starting point for all sorts of ideas, including ways of positively IDing more people.

 

[Handlebar]

I also support a secure voting process, but it seems that we differ in that I think we already have one based on the number of convicted fraudulent voters out there.



Effort like voting red/blue no matter who, just pulling the lever for one side? Kidding of course.
If the SAVE Act were passed today, based on seeing the process my wife went through to get a Real ID, I am confident that there would be many women who would not be able to vote in 9 months

I wish I had your confidence, I don't.

 

[Beignet]

The point was that Daines opposed the Real ID Act for 20 years for whatever reason. According to Montana DOJ, as of late 2025, 58% of driver's licenses are not Real ID compliant. That will be a pretty big lift for those organizations. And probably costly for individuals.

Opposition to the Real ID was initially a conservative / libertarian led effort as part of a broader opposition to establishing a big government surveillance state with a national ID card. Since then the country has somehow gone from immense opposition to the privacy infringement of the PATRIOT Act to being fully ok with having federal law enforcement scan biometric data and blast it off to tech companies such as Palantir.

 

[BigHornRam]

That wasn't my point.

I was just pointing out the numbers are close.

Take those 10 percent that were mentioned.

Apply it to 2024.

We have no way of knowing who those 10 percent may or may not have voted for.

If we had a Real ID voter requirement in 2024, and 10 percent were eliminated just because of that, hard to say how those cards would have fallen, and who those votes would go for.

My wife and I just registered to vote in Wyoming recently. Their process is well thought out, and not at all a burden. I'm good with that.

 

[Gulf of America]

We really don't know how many noncitizens are voting, and we also don't know how many people voted in multiple states. We currently have no way to figure it out.

That's just not true. We may not know how many people are registered to vote in some states, and therefore the percentage of eligible voters that actually voted, but we know how many votes were cast, you just add up all the results reported by precincts.

 

[sapperJ24]

We really don't know how many noncitizens are voting, and we also don't know how many people voted in multiple states. We currently have no way to figure it out.

I know that multiple ballots were sent to houses when the people had moved to another state already. There really wasn't any way to prevent someone from filling the ballot out and returning them.

I do know with certainty that at least one person working at one WA Licensing location encouraged noncitizens to register to vote almost 25 years ago. How many noncitizens were registered?

You are welcome to think it doesn't matter, but there are many elections that are won or lost by less than one percent. It doesn't take much to change an election.

This link (https://electionfraud.heritage.org/) from the Heritage Foundation shows convictions related to voter fraud, including noncitizen registration and multi-jurisdiction voting. 1620 total convictions with with the most convictions in a state (MN) at 138. While 1620 and 138 aren't nothing, and I would prefer that number to be zero, I am not in favor of disenfranchising likely significantly more legal voters. Voter fraud convictions should also be pretty easy to come by since there is an evident paper trail.

 

[Gulf of America]

My wife and I just registered to vote in Wyoming recently. Their process is well thought out, and not at all a burden. I'm good with that.

Wyoming's voter registration would not necessarily comply with the SAVE act.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Dunno if you're actually a selfish little twit. People are often different online than in person. And you do have plenty of posts that are nuanced a bit once you unpack the thought. But, man, there was a post of yours a while back that kinda struck me and made me realize the mentality a lot of folks have today. I forget the exact language, but it was something along the lines of that because a certain subset of society supported the enforcement of mask and vaccine mandates during the pandemic that no one gets the privilege or right of being upset about what they perceive to be violations of their fundamental constitutionally guaranteed liberties. That seemed to me like you were holding onto a rage from a past grievance and using it to justify treating others unfairly because you were treated unfairly.

Human to human, that's not a healthy weight to carry around with you and must be an exhausting way to live.

So, the more I ponder that the more I realize how truly we are living in an era of grievance and retribution politics. All of which is indeed very shortsighted & selfish. Hell, I believe that Il Duce The President very much ran on a platform of "I'll be your retribution." That's pretty weird to me.

Anyway. It is a personal policy of mine to not be mean spirited on the internet or speak to people online in a way that's different from how I would speak to them in-person. So I apologize if it seemed as though I was name calling you, or anyone else on here.

The comment wasnt meant that way. All it was for is to point out the hypocrisy of people. That they dont care about the actual thing happening they care about who is doing them. If its their team or not their team dictates their stance on it.

I have no rage about covid it was just another cog in the wheel of how this world goes around nowadays.

 

[sapperJ24]

Opposition to the Real ID was initially a conservative / libertarian led effort as part of a broader opposition to establishing a big government surveillance state with a national ID card. Since then the country has somehow gone from immense opposition to the privacy infringement of the PATRIOT Act to being fully ok with having federal law enforcement scan biometric data and blast it off to tech companies such as Palantir.

We're just fortunate to be part of Peter Theil's fantasy.

 

[406dn]

I know that multiple ballots were sent to houses when the people had moved to another state already. There really wasn't any way to prevent someone from filling the ballot out and returning them.

Every mail in ballot includes a signature attesting to the ballot being cast by a registered voter. The signature is on record at the precinct where the ballot is sent. The signatures are compared before the ballot is accepted.

It is laughable that the next person living at an address, has a clue on how to forge the previous resident's signature.

One of the worst things Trump has done is to convince many that elections are rigged. There will be someone reading this that is certain that Trump actually won in 2020. It's an amazing feat, given Trump is on tape trying to steal Georgia.

 

[BigHornRam]

Wyoming's voter registration would not necessarily comply with the SAVE act.

How so?