Voting

For us in Connecticut we vote only on Election Day, we do not have early elections like many other states. But when we go to vote we want to make sure that we don’t face discrimination in the election booth.

Transgender Voters Prepare for Challenges at the Polls
“My main concern is having to show my driver’s license and then looking completely different than the person on the license," said Cassandra Beckham, who is voting for the first time as an openly transgender woman.
Rewired
By Christine Grimaldi
By November 3, 2016

“I have run into several road blocks down here just trying to get my birth certificate amended so I can get an updated driver’s license picture,” the 22-year-old Houston, Texas, resident told Rewire in a phone interview. She described placing calls to the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Human Services, the Harris County Clerk’s Office, and eventually, the Texas Secretary of State’s office, all in a protracted effort to determine what identification she’d need at the polls.

Texas is one of 14 states that received an “F” from the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) for having the nation’s least trans-friendly driver’s license policies for changing gender markers.

All 14 states that earned a failing grade require trans people to produce a court order, an amended birth certificate, or proof of surgery—even though the latter has no bearing on a person’s gender identity and may not be an option for personal, medical, or financial reasons. Proof of surgery also runs counter to the American Medical Association’s (AMA) call for modernizing birth certificate policies.

Connecticut is one of about a half a dozen states that allow us to change our birth certificates without surgery.

Meanwhile in other states they are making it harder for us to vote.
Trans voters represent just one marginalized group that may face barriers to exercising their constitutional right to vote amid the rancor leading up to Election Day. Trump repeated voting falsehoods around this summer’s anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law designed to stop states from passing legislation preventing Black voters from accessing the ballot box.


A senior campaign official last week touted Trump’s “major voter suppression operations” against Black people and young women. Trump continues to use his platform to claim that the presidential election is “rigged” against him, perpetuating the myth of voter fraud and riling up white nationalists who openly plan to monitor urban polling areas in an attempt to thwart Black voters.
I am looking forward to voting this Tuesday, it should be interesting to see if I get challenged again when I go in to vote.

If you have problems voting report it! Here in Connecticut report to your town clerk, to the Secretary of State’s office and to a legal organization like Lambda Legal, the ACLU, or some other organization.

Here in Connecticut you need (This is from the Secretary of State’s website);
Is a driver's license or photo ID required to vote in Connecticut?

No.  When you arrive at the polling place the poll worker will request that you present ID but if you do not have any then in most cases, you may sign an affidavit in lieu of presenting ID.  There are several options for identification and they do not need to be a driver's license or have a photo.

Is a driver's license or photo ID required to vote in Connecticut?

No.  When you arrive at the polling place the poll worker will request that you present ID but if you do not have any then in most cases, you may sign an affidavit in lieu of presenting ID.  There are several options for identification and they do not need to be a driver's license or have a photo.

My new driver’s license indicates that it is NOT FOR FEDERAL IDENTIFICATION. May I use it as identification at the polling place?

Yes. You may continue to use your current driver’s license at the polling place when you vote. When you check-in to vote, in lieu of the driver’s license, you may also show a credit card with your name and signature, an ID with your name and photograph, or any document with your name and address such as a checkbook or a utility bill.

Does the photo ID need to have the address printed on it?

No. A photo ID does not need to have your address on it. e.g.- College Student ID, Employee ID or a U.S. Passport.
Here in Connecticut voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. The conservative website LifeZette says,

Connecticut elections officials this week took steps to confront “voter intimidation” and downplayed the chances of fraud.

The Hartford Courant quoted Michael Brandi, executive director of the State Elections Enforcement Commission, as saying that voters have nothing to worry about in terms of the integrity of the system.

 “I’ve said this repeatedly, there is no possibility in the state of Connecticut of a full-rigged election,” he said. “It just can’t occur.’

It’s unclear if Brandi thinks a half-rigged or a quarter-rigged election is possible. But state Republican Party Chairman J.R. Romano pointed to a successful prosecution of a Democratic state representative in 2015 as proof that there are problems that need to be addressed.

Stop the presses… one person has been arrested here in Connecticut out of one and a half million voters just one person has been arrested! I do not call that rampant voter fraud.

So what do they find when they do a mandatory audit of the elections? They find people have moved and not reported their change of address, but they also didn’t find anyone voting twice. They people who have died and were still on the voter registration, but they did not find any cases of the dead voting.

Also having a voter ID wouldn’t have made any difference because at no time did Christina Ayala use another name, she voted as herself in both places.