Posted by
Always To The Right on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:38:18 PM
Remember "Election Day," when you actually had to show up on the
first Tuesday after the first Monday in November and prove who you
were? Making it easier to vote made it easier to cheat.
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What it has increased is voter fraud, inviting activist groups to
inundate election boards with bogus and multiple registrations that bog
down the system.
This November may make us long for the good old days of hanging chads.
You used to have to provide as much identification to vote as you do
to get a library card. Now in some jurisdictions you can show up with
an old electricity or phone bill, not necessarily your own. In at least
one state, voter "turnout" is an anachronism and you don't have to show
up at all. Oregon has done away with polling places entirely. All
voting there is by mail.
Registering in person with a photo ID or getting to the polling
place once a year is not too much to ask of voters who can get to work
or school every day or to the grocery store once a week.
They can get their backsides off the couch to attend rock concerts
and sporting events, so why not the local polling place? If it's still
too hard, make Election Day a national holiday.
Since Bill Clinton signed the Motor Voter Act, registering to vote
in many states has been as complicated as just showing up on Election
Day. Eight of the 19 Sept. 11 terrorists, including Mohammed Atta,
could have registered to vote in Florida and Virginia while planning
their attacks.
Efforts to ensure ballot integrity, to have our elections as honest
as the Iraqi elections where millions proudly held up purple fingers,
have met with resistance from liberals and Democrats. They claim that
verifying identity is racist and an attempt to intimidate the poor and
minorities.
Photo IDs are already required for a host of activities from
applying for Social Security to getting food stamps and cashing checks
at the bank. In Georgia, photo IDs are made available to residents who
don't have driver's licenses.