Barriers to Democracy

by | Jun 11, 2018 | Features, The Kovach Corner | 1 comment

Does the last letter of GOP stand for purge? I understand the electoral strategy behind removing certain voters from the rolls, but I fail to comprehend the morality of it. Moreover, I wonder why nominal members of the Republican Party who are not making these decisions still stand behind them. It is unconscionable, to me, that public servants would hope to make it harder for Americans to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. Especially, mind you, from the party that touts that document often, if not seriously.

Since this is PoliticsNC, let’s start at home. In 2017, the but absent any information on how it might look.

The GOP would never go for national ID because it actually makes it easier for eligible citizens to vote. Instead of limiting the number of possible voters, national ID along with automatic registration would empower thousands of people to vote, should they choose to do so. And the GOP insists that you choose to do so, because if you don’t, well, they’re going to take your name off the voter rolls. The New York Times writes: “Ohio is more aggressive than any other state in purging its voter rolls. After skipping a single federal election cycle, voters are sent a notice. If they fail to respond and do not vote in the next four years, their names are purged from the rolls.” By no fault of your own, the Ohio State Government can rip your name off the voter registry and, if you do decide to vote, you may just be out of luck on election day. Dig deeper into who is affected, as Reuters did, and wouldn’t you know it, African-Americans once again were purged from the rolls at an inordinate rate: “Voters have been struck from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods,” the study found. “Neighborhoods that have a high proportion of poor, African-American residents are hit the hardest.”

Though many may decry this as some sort of effort to bolster fraudulent voting (which, statistically, occurs via absentee ballot, where the NC voter ID law didn’t apply), I wholeheartedly accept that a national ID would be a great leap forward for elections. We should also register teenagers automatically, so that they can vote immediately once they turn eighteen. Through all the partisan vitriol and the questionable narratives surrounding voter ID laws that will arise over the next few months, the past few years have indicated to me this: one side of the argument wants to enable everyone who can vote to do so, and the other seems to erect barriers every step of the way. Why is that?

1 Comment

  1. Ebrun

    SCOTUS just approved Ohio’s laws for purging the voter rolls. Guess the majority didn’t buy your demagogic claims. Failure to purge the rolls of those who don’t vote invites fraudulent voting and voting in districts where the voter does not reside The Ohio law provides an incentive for voters who want to vote to update their registration data to ensure they vote in their legally designated voting district.

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