It is no secret, our electoral system is broken. Voter manipulation, coercion, fraud and even simple technical errors are severe problems and are seriously hindering the ability to have a fair and honest election. This is evidenced by the fact that during every election year, election day is immediately followed by investigation and lawsuit day. After every close election it seems the loser files a lawsuit or demands an investigation into voter fraud or manipulation by the hands of his or her opponent or their affiliated party. Most often these investigations and lawsuits do not go anywhere because there is never sufficient evidence to act on. However, evidence of various other forms violations are found quite often. An example of voter intimidation would be that by the Black Panthers who posted members in their quasi-paramilitary garb holding batons outside polling stations. An example of manipulation would be a group rallying people and busing them to a polling station in order to have them vote for a specific candidate or proposition in exchange for goods or services. (This is most commonly done in low income areas using disenfranchised people who could be subjected to this type of manipulation.) Examples of fraud would be an individual voting using someone else's identity (alive or dead) or voting multiple times using various identities or other methods of false registration. Most notably, ACORN employees were charged (and later pleaded guilty to) with (in the name of "VOTER REGISTRATION") filing false registration cards with phony names. No joke, in Washington State ACORN used the names of its political rivals to falsely register voters; and in Las Vegas, ACORN registered the entire Dallas Cowboy lineup. All of these examples have occurred and have been identified and even prosecuted over the past decade. This could easily be thwarted if we had stricter guidelines and better enforcement to protect the legitimacy of our most sacred privilege, the privilege to choose who we want to represent us in government.
The current mess is amplified by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last week that PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP IS NOT REQUIRED IN ORDER TO VOTE! They justify this by saying that certain portions of the American public do not have Passports, Driver's Licenses or Birth Certificates and in an effort to ensure they can vote, the government will not mandate any proof of citizenship. I am pretty sure that there is a better way to accomplish this without losing all electoral integrity. This ruling now empowers and enables those who would, in an effort to get a certain candidate elected, manipulate non-citizens into voting for a specified agenda. I will use the most obvious and prudent example to illustrate. If there was a candidate who campaigned on the platform of allowing illegal aliens open access to the U.S. and give all illegal aliens free health care, his campaign would be allowed to mobilize all the illegal immigrants to the ballot boxes to get him into office. And the illegal immigrants would gladly do so because it obviously benefits them. So, even if American citizens may disagree with his policy, they could be outvoted if his campaign could mobilize enough illegal personnel. Now regardless of how you feel about illegal immigration or the benefits afforded those here illegally, the issue is that SHOULDN'T AMERICAN CITIZENS BE THE ONES MAKING THAT DECISION? Does anyone believe that any other country would allow an American to vote in their election?
If anything, we should be making it more difficult to vote, not easier. Voting is a privilege, and one that should be revered, not bought and sold. A very high percentage of voters do not even have an understanding of the issues and/or the policies of a candidate. A voter will vote on a proposition based on an endorsement or commercial and never read the fine print (i.e. Who is paying for what and where are they getting the money from? Are unions, businesses or religious groups funding the bill? Does that green energy prop mandate the euthanizing of all people over the age of 80?). If you do not fully read and understand the proposition, then do NOT vote on it. In some cases, the voter just sees the (R) or (D) next to the name and votes accordingly. The candidate could be a complete fruitcake (see South Carolina's Alvin Greene). In other cases, the voter could be a complete idiot without any capacity to make a sound decision and votes based on what a celebrity tells him or what he saw on a billboard. DOES AMERICA REALLY NEED MORE STUPID OR CARELESS VOTERS? Do I discriminate when it come to who can vote? You are damn right I do! I discriminate against STUPID PEOPLE!
I am all for the requirement to pass a test in order to vote. Not a hard one with questions like, "Is Australia a country or continent?"... just something to ensure that you actually have a functioning brain housing group and do not get all your current events from reruns of Jersey Shore. The test would include real mind-scramblers such as: Who is the Attorney General? How many branches of Government are there and can you name them? What does the "D.C." in Washington, D.C. stand for? Now if you needed help answering these three questions, you may want to rethink your reading list. All I want is comfort knowing that those who are voting have an idea of what it takes make a state, nation and country tick. And, in case you did not know, a state, a nation and a country are actually three different things. Our economy is in turmoil and unemployment rate is over 10%, things are not good. I want a voter who understands what it takes to keep our economy humming, and is not buying into the myth of "Obama Money" as described by a member of the voting public during the 2008 election.
In conclusion, I am not a "Rock the Vote" kind of guy. I am more the Educate the Vote type of guy. Instead of dazzling the sheep with bright shiny things, I would rather inspire the people of the U.S. to learn about our state, our nation and our country and then vote accordingly.
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