by
Walter Brasch
Several hundred thousand American citizens won’t be voting in
presidential primary elections—and it’s not their fault.
In Pennsylvania, for example, a registered voter who needed an
absentee ballot had to submit the request at least one full week before the
election, and then return the ballot no less than four days before the
election.
But,
what if circumstances changed? What if that person became injured or had to
leave the state after April 19, but before the election, Tuesday? If it was
April 20, you could not receive an absentee ballot. You could still vote in
person, but if you couldn’t get to the polls, you would be disenfranchised.
There’s nothing you could do. In one week, you lost the right to vote because
bureaucratic rules blocked you from receiving a ballot—even if you could get
that ballot to your county registrar of voters by the end of the day of the
election.
Let’s say you were injured a day after the deadline to request
a ballot, and want to vote in person on Election Day. If you’re now temporarily
in a wheelchair, can’t drive, walk, or get into a regular car, you’ll have to
use a medical transport. That’s a minimum of $150 round trip from your home to
the polls.
Politicians and their political parties say they want all
American citizens to register and vote. There are voter registration campaigns
at colleges, in bars, at fire halls, and street fairs. But, the politicians
really don’t care about your vote.
In Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order to
allow felons who completed their sentences to be again given the right to vote.
This affects more than 200,000 persons. But, the Republicans are crying “foul.”
They say that felons might vote for Democrats, and on that basis alone they want
to keep felons from voting rights. Of course, the Republican establishment has
no basis for its assumption—especially since there are a lot of Republican
politicians who have been convicted of felonies.
Currently, only two states—Maine and Vermont—allow incarcerated
prisoners the right to vote by absentee ballot. Twenty-four states allow felons
the right to vote after they complete their incarceration and end of parole.
Fourteen states allow felons on parole, but who completed their incarceration,
to vote. In 10 states, anyone convicted of a felony permanently loses all right
to vote, even if it’s decades after completing their sentences, even if they
are now model citizens.
Giving the vote to Hispanics also annoys the Republican right
wing. They believe people with dark skin and black hair must be illegal aliens
and, thus, shouldn’t vote. Even those with legal status who are serving in the
U.S. military should be banned from citizenship and voting, say the extreme
right wing. Like the Republicans in Virginia, the Republicans in the Southwest
vigorously object to citizenship and voting rights for anyone who might vote
for those who aren’t Republicans.
It’s the same Republicans who have gone to great lengths to
require all forms of identification in order to register and vote. They claim
it’s to prevent voter fraud. But, the number of cases of voter fraud in the
past two election cycles is about the same as the chance of being hit by a
torpedo while rowing in the lake in New York’s Central Park.
It has become obvious in the past few years that voting is no
longer a constitutional right—but a political football.
[Dr. Brasch’s latest
book is Fracking America, the only
comprehensive overview of the history, process, and effects of high volume
horizontal fracturing. The book also looks at numerous social, economic, and
political issues, including the relationship between the oil/gas industry and
politicians.]
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