Voters Don't Need Increased Burdens to Create a Fraud-Free System
Jonathan DennI've written here previously about what I believe is the #1 most important electoral reform. More important than ending gerrymandering, more important than ending the legal extortion and bribery of elected officials, more important than term limits, more important than no political party shall be privileged, and more important than ending first-past-the-post single mark ballots (the #2 most important electoral reform) is the right to a
(Also read: Hard Evidence Supports the Need for Voter ID Laws)
How disingenuous to bemoan the fact that almost everyone has valid state or federal ID, and yet mandate a second redundant ID which has an additional cost of time and money to cast a ballot. How about making a valid ID be a voter ID, or have it issued automatically from the first ID application?
This is an elegant spin of the red duopoly. The elegant spin of the blue duopoly is to deny the very existence of voter fraud. There is the very real issue of "state-hopping" where blue state residents "move" to purple states to swing those elections.
The reason voter turnout is low is that many people believe their vote doesn't count. And they are correct—it pretty much doesn't. A blue or red duopolist who takes money from the corporations/unions they regulate will get (re)elected, and the same spin the oligarchs and plutocrats flick just keeps on turning.
The doupoly controls the debates. Their ad revenue fuels mass media. Secret corporate money funds the candidates. You can't make this stuff up. The founders did not have this in mind. Why do we put up with it?
If almost everyone has valid ID then, I don't know, how about we let them vote?! If there must be another layer of validity, then let the federal government pay for it. It is also disingenuous for the red duopolists to scream we can't afford it. It can't cost all that much. We waste more than that on tons of stuff.
If people really had a choice at the ballot box, frictionless access to voting, and a verifiable fraud-free system—we would be the shining example of a democratic republic to the world. Not so much now.
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