Homeland Security Director Defends Real ID

An anonymous reader writes "Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff is defending the upcoming rollout of the national ID card as vital for the nation's security. Chertoff reminded reporters of the importance of the initiative after this week's uncovering of an ID-forging ring. The Real ID Act of May 2005 dictates the uses and requirements for the documentation, which by 2008 may be required for everything from travel to banking. Just the same, the HSD has yet to dictate how exactly the cards will work. " From the article: "The Homeland Security chief, who is nearing his two-year mark with the agency, was likely trying to quell rampant skepticism about the IDs voiced by some privacy advocates, immigrants and other groups. Some have said they fear that the IDs are a stepping stone to a veritable police state, complete with ready surveillance of individuals. Some have argued that the idea of creating more tamperproof IDs is only a marginally better way to screen out those intent on committing terrorist acts because ID cards don't even begin to tackle a core crime prevention challenge: determining a person's unspoken intentions. "

Comments

Two sites

[BalkanBoy]

relevant to this issue:

http://www.no2id.net/
http://www.papersplease.org/

Think hard about whether you really want to trade the last shred of privacy for a little bit of 'added security'.

So here's another shoe to drop.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Under The Real ID Act, though, the state ID authority (usually the DMV) will be required not only to examine your birth certificate and social security card, but also to scan and create digital copies of them in their system, as well as collecting further information on their forms.

So here's another shoe to drop:

This is exactly the information necessary to use the IDs and related databases as the foundation of a system to insure that:
  - Voters are real people.
  - Voters are qualified to vote, i.e.:
        - Are citizens (in states that don't explicitly permit non-citizens to vote)
        - Are of age to vote.
        - Are residents of the place where they vote.
        - Are not barred from voting (for instance: By felony convictions in states where felons aren't allowed to vote)
  - Voters are only registered once, in one place.
  - Voters vote no more than once.

Half of vote fraud is bogus counting (such as the black-box voting flap). The other half is bogus voters (such as the cemetary vote, the virtual voters created en masse by the combination of motor-voter "vote drives" with no-excuse absentee voting, illegal alien signups, multiple registration, and so on.)

The data collected for this national I.D. card is exactly what's needed to purge the voting rolls of fake voters. Once it's collected and federalized the Fed can check it for authenticity and lack of duplication. Then:
  - include a "where registered" field in the database entry for each federal I.D. record
  - open that field for checking and update by voter registration clerks, and
  - add a federal mandate that the federal I.D. number be used, and checked, for registration for federal elections,
and you've got a solution for the second class of ballot-box stuffing (modulo corruption in THIS system, which could be construed to be a "security" crime as well as vote fraud).

So if you want to oppose this, bring up this "benefit". You'll immediately have a rush of machine politicians to vote against the whole I.D. scheme. B-)

Re:Oh no, think about our children!

[Anonymous Coward]

That depends... It seems to be sufficient reason to *arrest* someone, but not always enough reason to *prosecute*
http://www.papersplease.org/cases.html