Voting Rights

For John, BLUF:  Do you think Ms Clinton actually thinks about what she is saying?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From The Hill, reporters Ben Kamisar and Jesse Byrnes give us "Bashing GOP, Clinton calls for automatic voter registration".

When I hear things like this from the Candidate who is avoiding questions from Reports, I think shrill.  I also think of a Government Official who has lost her EMails, but sucks money from a $2 Billion institution.

Like most Democrats, she is unaware of voter fraud, even when her own party is doing it.  So, what else is she willing to ignore?

Here is my response to her proposal to do automatic voter registration at age 18.  Try it out with automatic draft registration at age 18 and see how that works for a couple of years.  If it is not a total SNAFU,♠ then there is a basis to move on to that most vital right, voting.♥

From the story in The Washington Examiner:

"Today Republicans are systematically and deliberately trying to stop millions of citizens from voting," she said during a speech at Texas Southern University in Houston.

"I call on Republicans at all levels of government, with all manner of ambition to stop fear-mongering about a phantom epidemic of election fraud and start explaining why they are so scared of letting citizens have their say."

Clinton went after former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush by name, accusing the Republican presidential hopefuls of taking part in “a sweeping effort to disempower and disenfranchise" minorities, young people and the poor.

Speaking of fear mongering.  And back to my point about shrill.

There is this from that Conservative Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens, in the 2008 decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board:

[F]lagrant examples of such fraud in other parts of the country have been documented throughout this Nation’s history by respected historians and journalists,that occasional examples have surfaced in recent years,and that Indiana’s own experience with fraudulent voting in the 2003 Democratic primary for East Chicago Mayor—though perpetrated using absentee ballots and not in-person fraud—demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election.

There is no question about the legitimacy or importance of the State’s interest in counting only the votes of eligible voters.  Moreover, the interest in orderly administration and accurate recordkeeping provides a sufficient justification for carefully identifying all voters participating in the election process.  While the most effective method of preventing election fraud may well be debatable, the propriety of doing so is perfectly clear.

Per Rasmussen, amongst likely voters, 76% favor requiring Voter ID.  I blame the Republicans, because only 58% of Democrats favor requiring an ID to Vote.♦

One final point.  Voting is a right and a responsibility and folks who are eligible to vote need to ensure that they are registered.  Let us not be putting it on some Clerk in City Hall.♣  Those are very nice folks in the Lowell Election Office, ready and willing to help you, but being sure you are registered is YOUR job.  They will help you, gladly, but at the end of the day, it is on you.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Think the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare to City Life Host Professor George Anthes, Esq.
♥  If Ms Clinton wishes to show what a total Progressive she is, she can throw in women registering for the draft.
♦  In this Commonwealth there is an option for requiring the showing of ID.
♣  And making it part of welfare processing just overburdens a process that is already overburdened.