Your Opinion: Purple Finger Award

Published 9:37 pm Thursday, October 13, 2011

I was not aware that a Democratic Underground existed until I read the most recent Their Opinion column by Cokie and Steven Roberts. In an effort to seek out the source of their hatred for all things Republican, I checked their references.

Who would have ever thought that Rolling Stone magazine (www.rollingstone.com) would be a noteworthy source for political information on the subject of voting in state and national elections. I was clueless about this Republican conspiracy to deny voters the right to vote and to steal the 2012 national and state elections.

I have but one vote to cast. I would like to believe that my vote is not offset by an individual that votes more than once, a deceased voter or not counted at all — or even worse, offset by a person not eligible to vote by law.

Voter identification appears to be at the heart of their angst and more specifically an acceptable photo identification card or document.

What is acceptable to register and to vote varies from state to state. The action by many states to require a photo ID to vote is interpreted by Cokie and Company as a miscarriage of justice. A justification to call for a jihad against  the Republicans.

In my opinion, requiring a photo ID to vote is not a poll tax or a return to Jim Crow laws. Will we ever hear an end to these inflammatory and divisive references?

I was not aware that Georgia and several other Southern states with a history of segregation and discrimination are still being singled out for special review of their polices on voter registration by the US Department of Justice for any change to voting qualification or prerequisite to voting for covered elections.

Will the South ever be forgiven and trusted? Not as long as we have Cokie & Company, Reverend Al Sharpton and others to stir the pot.

I find it disingenuous of Cokie and Steven to refer to the purple fingers waived by Iraqi voters as being a great example of what our country cheered about and supported. Then to liken the  requirement to have a photo ID to vote as giving our country a black eye; hence, the title of their column – “Purple fingers, black eyes.”

If Cokie and Company hail the waving of a purple finger after voting in Iraq as cause to cheer, one might assume that they would support finger printing every voter in our country. Then the government could compare the finger print on the ballot to a data base of prints taken at the time of voter registration. This would omit the photo ID requirement. In Iraq, the voters also had to show a national identification card with a photo on it. The ACLU and hordes of others would never allow such an intrusion of our privacy.

I don’t know about you, but my photo ID (drivers license) has been photocopied and scanned in to the computers of Tift Regional Medical Center, Affinity and numerous other places more times than I can remember. I found it hard to believe that there are 21 million people in our country that do not have an acceptable photo ID.

On second thought, when you read the police reports in the Tifton Gazette, the number of people driving without a license or a revoked and suspended license it becomes more believable.

Biotechnology does offer some solutions and the one I find most intriguing is the scanning of the veins in the palm of your hand. It is in use by some hospitals and licensing boards and it has been proven to be reliable.

 I recently took my Mother to a hospital laboratory in Plant City, Fla., for blood work. She walked up to the counter and placed her palm on a small device. In seconds, she was logged in and the bar codes for her tests were printed.

 I can log in at Affinity  Clinic and wait for a data entry specialist to verify all my data and print a page full of labels for one blood  test. On a good day, I spend at least 10 to 15 minutes to accomplish what should take seconds. One person at her hospital did the work of several people at Affinity and much faster.

The opportunity to cast a vote should come with rights and responsibilities. In a perfect world the electorate would be educated and informed on the issues. Political party, gender, race and religion would not be an issue. Every vote would be counted and there would be no fraud.

The world is not perfect. There are abuses and shortcomings. Like the tax code there is need for reform of the system. The system has undergone significant change since its inception. More is needed from a rotation schedule for the primaries, to voter verification, to Electoral College reform.

I personally do not consider it a violation of my civil rights or an injustice to identify myself and verify that I am a qualified voter. I will present my photo ID with a smile.

If you want to finger print my index finger, I will wave it to anyone wanting to photograph me after voting with pride. If you want to swab my mouth for DNA or scan the veins in the palm of my hand, it is a small price to pay for true democracy.

I have nothing to fear but the broken system that we currently have. What are you (Cokie and Company) hiding from, the truth?

Alan Liggett

Tifton