I know voter fraud does not exist. Many of my friends who are Democrats, or lean in that direction, tell me there is no such thing. My US Attorney General assures me there is no such thing—and fights efforts to protect against it. The ACLU, which I help fund, tells me the same thing.
However, from time to time someone comes along and shows how it can be done.
The thing I take comfort from is that no one I know would engage in such a terrible and undemocratic thing. It just doesn't happen here, in this great nation. Well, except for Cook County. You heard that Cook County sold all their old voting machines to Moscow and Richard Daley won the next election for mayor in the Russian Capital? Sure enough.
The real reason there is not rampant fraud is there are poll watchers, which are not easy to come by.
This opposition to showing some form of identification (someone told me that a utility bill will do in our fair Commonwealth) seems to be strange in the "reality based community", given that it not only can happen, but may even happen in some places—but not here, for sure.
Here is the reality. If the police stop patrolling the Lowell Connector, speeds along the Connector will creep up. Sure as God made little green apples.
Regards — Cliff
This is sure to bring howls of protest. Anyone who opposes any methodology to prove that you are who you claim to be, BEFORE being handed a ballot to vote, is someone who DOESN'T have faith in the system and INTENDS to employ subterfuge in order to win.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to prove that you are who you represent yourself to be is simply a requirement of good citizenship and respect for the freedoms that this country stands for.
Good citizenship is predicated on not "trespassing," meaning the biblical sense of the word. We should all operate in our own orbits, like stars, free of conflict or collision.
ReplyDeleteFurther, if the presumption is that I am innocent, no preemptive measure need be employed to deter me.
I need not prove to anyone who I am. No official can, without probable cause, arrest my forward progress.
I carry a drivers license as a condition of the priviledge to drive. I vote based on a birthright, due the very fortunate outcome of the lottery of birth. I am an American.
Noli Me Tangere
I don't disagree with you Jack. I would hasten to add that when I speak of "citizenship" I include in it the provisio...the hope.....that we act as honorable men and women while spinning in our own orbits...thus cancelling any need for doubt in one's truthfulness. We of course know that when it comes to men....particularly in today's age (my opinion) honor is more the exception than the rule.
ReplyDeleteMy personal rule is always to take someone at their word, until and unless I have reason to believe otherwise. I think a person must have good situational awareness and a strong sense of reality.
And "yes" we are truly blessed by an accident of birth. I just want to avoid allowing others who don't respect our blessings to change it.....we always seem to sink to the lowest common denominator.....
Ah, now we are down to Biblical Quotes.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I agree with Jack about the driver's license. And, walking down the street you should need no ID. I was watching a TV program last night where the police asked for proof of identification. Seems over the top, without a warrant. If the person had been driving it would have been different.
But, when you go to vote and no one recognizes you it is not inherently unfair to ask for something to associate you with the person and the address on the rolls.
Regards — Cliff