With all due respect to Juan Williams, a commentator for whom I have (surprisingly enough) a lot of respect, but I would take issue with the premise here. Not from a partisan point of view, but one that would question the statistics that he uses to bolster his talking points.
I am sorry, but when some think tank/polling group says X numbers of people are going to be affected by Y, it immediately raises my suspicions, especially when they say this group is going to be more affected. Now, they may be right, but then again, I just question the accuracy of their figures.
Granted, ballot box stuffing is more prevalent now than chain voting – an old practice where a person provided a voter with a pre-marked ballot to use in place of the one given at the polling station, which then was passed on pre-marked to another voter – or even serial voting – which is where a voter goes from precinct to precinct to vote, which is what identification requirements are designed to prevent.
Now, it would seem obvious that every citizen should have the right to vote in elections, but what is obvious is not always really the truth. You do not, in the United States, have an absolute right to vote in any election, even if you are a citizen. You see, before you are eligible to vote in this republic (remember it is not a “democracy”), you have to establish “residency” in a particular voting precinct. How you do this is outlined in various state laws, but usually requires that you have an address that is good for a specified length of time. That is qualification requirement number 1.
Then you have to register with the local board of elections – usually run at the county level – to put you on the voter rolls. There is any number of ways to do this, including, in most states, doing it online or through the mail. This is qualification requirement number 2.
Now, if you are a felon and currently serving a sentence, then you are not allowed to vote, although in most states, it seems, once you have completed your sentence, the state offers forgiveness and lifts the ban. So, in essence, that is qualification requirement number 3.
Then, in one way or another, you have to either present yourself to the voting precinct on the day of the election or – in states where early voting is allowed – the county election office to cast your ballot. You also can request an absentee ballot that you can submit by mail, but that requires a sworn statement from the voter. This is requirement number 4.
So, an individual just doesn’t have the right to cast a ballot. It is more like a privilege.
However, saying that a person needs to present a valid photo identification does not seem to me to be really that undue a burden, but then I have always presented one in the six states that I have been present and able to vote.
But then again, I have tried to vote absentee a couple of times, but being that I was deployed in the military at the times of the election, I suspect that my efforts were in vain.
Here, in Ohio, however it disappoints me to read that the campaign organization for President Obama and the Democratic National Committee have filed lawsuits to block allowing service members three extra days to use the state’s early voting system. I guess it is right that they should not get the three extra days, but it seems to me that they deserve it.
Still, when it comes down to it … it really is important that you have to want to vote because it is up to you to make sure it happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment