Nick DeCaro

Restrictive registration policies are advanced by Republicans, while Democrats consistently support automatic and same-day registration. This asymmetry aligns with the electoral effects of those policies. See: National Conference of State Legislatures; Brennan Center voting laws tracker.

Stricter registration and voting requirements disproportionately affect young voters, lower-income voters, renters, and voters of color—demographic groups that lean Democratic in national elections. See: Pew Research Center; academic studies on voter ID and registration policy effects.

Turnout among registered voters
In recent U.S. presidential elections, roughly 65% of eligible voters cast ballots, while ~88–90% of registered voters do so, indicating registration—not motivation—is the binding constraint. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Voting and Registration Supplement.

Courts and election administrators have found no evidence that voter fraud has changed the outcome of a presidential or congressional election despite extensive post-election litigation and audits. See: Brookings Institution; state election audits following 2016, 2020, and 2022 elections.

Multiple studies find voter fraud rates between 0.00004% and 0.0009% of ballots cast, with impersonation and double voting among the rarest offenses. See: Brennan Center for Justice, The Truth About Voter Fraud; Brookings Institution, How Widespread Is Election Fraud in the United States? Not Very.

When a party repeatedly advances voting restrictions justified by hypothetical fraud, and those restrictions consistently produce partisan advantage, it is reasonable to conclude the goal is electoral advantage, not election integrity.

Sources⬇️

What these policies do reliably accomplish is reducing participation among young voters, low-income voters, renters, and voters of color, groups that tend to lean Democratic.

Voter Fraud/Voter ID

Voter fraud in the United States is exceedingly rare. After decades of scrutiny, hundreds of millions of ballots cast, and repeated investigations by courts and election officials from both parties, there is no evidence it has ever altered the outcome of a major election.

Now playing.

Most polls never ask whether ID rules should:
• apply to mail ballots
• override signature verification
• increase ballot rejections
• burden local election officials

So “support for voter ID” often masks a second question:
Should mail voting be restricted through ID rules?

Voter ID polls well because people picture a simple, in-person ID check.
That’s not what the SAVE Act primarily affects.

SAVE would tie new ID requirements to registration and mail voting, not just Election Day voting.

If the federal standard shifts from “signature + attestation” to “documentary proof,” routine maintenance can become re-verification.

Even without an explicit mandate, it may trigger update demands when voters move, correct records, or are flagged in list maintenance — hitting mail voters first.

One under-discussed risk in the SAVE Act debate:
What happens if signature-only verification for mail voters is no longer treated as sufficient?

Many mail-voting states rely on signatures as the continuity check that keeps voters active without repeated in-person steps.

If lawmakers are going to rely on voter ID polling to justify this bill,
they owe the public an honest discussion of cost, time, and who gets left out.

That conversation now moves to the Senate.
Ask your senators⬇️

Who is most affected?

• seniors without passports
• rural voters far from offices
• students and young voters
• low-income voters
• married women with name mismatches
• mail voters who rarely appear in person

This isn’t about ID in theory.
It’s about access in practice.

The logistics aren’t trivial:

• Birth certificate: $25–$50, often weeks to process
• First-time passport: ~$165 in fees (+ photos), must apply in person
• Processing time: 6–10 weeks (faster costs more)

Often this takes multiple steps, not one.

What the SAVE Act (H.R. 22) actually requires is documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.

That means either:
• a U.S. passport, or
• a government photo ID + a certified birth certificate (or similar document)

Most driver’s licenses — even REAL ID — don’t show citizenship.

🧵

Most voter ID polling asks about “ID” in the abstract.
It does not ask whether voters would need to pay fees, gather documents, wait weeks, or show up in person to comply.
Those details matter — and they’re missing from the polls.

Wow! Nice work!

It’s been a while but I managed to get this close to done.

East Side industrial area and the Fremont Bridge.
Oil on panel, 12” x 24”

The big feud between dumb and dumber is the greatest gift to MSM since Watergate but they’re too broken to make it happen.

Several gourd bottles and wine jars, freshly thrown

A gourd bottles with tenmoku glaze

A pair of wine jars with glossy brown glaze

Fun fact: I was once commissioned for a bunch of gourd bottles/wine jars for drunken kung-fu form. That was fun. #ceramics #pottery #kungfu

We go up there once or twice every year. Amazing!

Georgia Pacific Paper Mill (now decommissioned) Camas, WA

Oil on linen, 16” x 24”
#oilpainting #industriallandscapepainting #builtenvironment

Ahh, interesting. They’re not too dissimilar. This Maryhill isn’t even a town and about 5 miles from the nearest intersection.

Mission and History | Maryhill Museum of Art | Art Education Our mission is to ignite a journey of educational enrichment in the Columbia River Gorge by preserving and interpreting art and historic collections.

I am currently in the states yes. Washington. I did live in Canada for 40 years though. Maryhill is near me here on the Columbia River. www.maryhillmuseum.org/inside/missi...

It’s pretty amazing. Maryhill museum is really interesting. It’s a small eclectic collection of things and the work of local painters is outstanding.

From the Maryhill Collection

William S. Hook
Highway Work Study 1, 2017
Watercolor on Paper

From the Maryhill collection.

Rowena Bridge
Jim Shull, 2006
Acrylic on linen