Voter Registration Without A Choice
By now we’re all used to the mixed up, backwards “logic” of some liberals in our government. They wax poetically about helping minorities attain the American Dream, but then hold them back with nowhere welfare programs for the sake of their votes. They belittle the wealth of Republicans like Mitt Romney; yet have no problem with the riches of Al Gore or Bill Clinton. An excellent example is the liberal ‘racist rant’. Mel Gibson unleashed a nasty and disgusting tirade about Jews and almost lost his career over it—but recently Alec Baldwin spouted a vicious attack on a black man. Any repercussions for Baldwin? Not one.
The 2012 election year was fraught with bickering about every possible topic. One that really stood out was the fight over voter ID laws. Conservatives were collectively banging their heads into walls over the ridiculous excuses liberals were throwing out to stop the ‘racist (‘repressive’, ‘bigoted’, ‘pick-a-word’) laws’. Of course you need ID to drive, drink, open a bank account, get food stamps, join the military, get disability benefits, receive SSI and SSD, etc., so it’s probably a safe bet to suggest the people the liberals were ‘protecting’ already had ID. Conservatives know the real issue was voter fraud. Now, here in Oregon, one liberal lawmaker suggests there are so many non-voters with ID that they just have to register them without consent.
Oregon’s Secretary of State Kate Brown, a Democrat, added Universal Voter Registration Amendments to House Bill 2198 last month that would use driver’s license data to automatically register Oregonians to vote. In addition, at some point in the future, they will use ‘data from other government agencies’ to register citizens. And wouldn’t you know it, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll taken in August of 2012 showed that non-voters were ‘heavily’ in favor of Barack Obama over Mitt Romney. It’s a safe bet that auto-registration would benefit Democrats over Republicans. Secretary Brown insists she isn’t looking for any kind of advantage for the Dems. She noted that Minnesota had the highest voter turnout last year and has gone back and forth between parties so she believes universal registration wouldn’t give Democrats preference.
Oregon is a vote-by-mail only state. The Presidential election saw 83% of registered Oregon voters participate, one of the highest percentages in the country. But, Brown called registration of Oregon voters ‘mediocre’! As an Oregonian, I’m concerned with participation because as it stands, there is very little that has to be done to vote. Now, they want even less engagement from citizens? Shouldn’t a bit of effort be necessary? Brown claims the change would ‘remove barriers’ and says one of the biggest is that registration is cut off twenty days before an election. Isn’t that fair? There are shockingly few measures in place to prevent fraud; a twenty-day cut-off time is the least they can do.
Registering someone who may not want to be registered goes against our rights as Americans. In Oregon, you can register at the DMV, online, through the mail…and soon, thanks to Obamacare, even at your doctor’s office! Yet, Brown is miffed that in 2012, 25% of eligible voters didn’t register? Gee, Madam Secretary, maybe they didn’t want to vote? The proposal could give Oregon the ‘broadest pool of registered voters in the country except North Dakota’. Why? Because you don’t even have to be registered to vote in North Dakota! Newly registered Oregon voters would get a letter in the mail from the Secretary of State telling them they’re registered and giving them the option of opting out. Gee, thanks.
At a debate during election season, Brown was so adamantly against voter ID laws that her main opponent liked to say, “Oregonians have to show more ID to rent a video from Blockbuster than to vote.” Brown called it part of the “right-wing war on voting.” That only makes a recent comment from her more baffling. “I think it’s critically important that we capture the Oregonians that are not driving. And a number of those folks we know have some type of state I.D.” Interesting that she acknowledges that ‘a number of those folks’ (even those ‘poor and disabled’ folks?) have ID–handy info when it benefits your side. The Democrats also tried to allow 16-year-old’s to register, yet not vote until they were 18–still fresh and knee deep in public school indoctrination.
It is interesting to note that on April 2nd, a new bill was introduced in the Oregon Senate that allows “undocumented residents who have lived in Oregon at least a year and who meet all other requirements to obtain a driver’s license, except for proof of legal presence.” Part of this universal registration bill assures that they won’t register illegals because DMV “has data on whether new applicants are citizens”. Do they intend on changing the bill to adjust for this new possibility, because the undocumented residents license bill will likely pass. Evidence of that also came on the 2nd when Governor John Kitzhaber signed a bill into law that grants undocumented high school graduates in-state tuition to college. The bill passed with the help of three Republicans.
Regarding the Universal Voter Registration Amendments, The Oregon Republican Party Chief of Staff Greg Leo said, “This is one more difference between the two parties. Democrats believe the government should register people to vote. Republicans believe people have an individual responsibility to vote.” In a news release, Party Chair Suzanne Gallagher added, “We are most concerned about how universal automatic registration will erode the privacy rights of Oregonians.” Even though there is a fairly high conservative/libertarian population in rural Oregon, the government is as liberal as they come. ‘Privacy’ is of little concern to Oregon lawmakers and that is clearly reflected in the rights-stealing bills introduced in Salem.
The HB 2198 summary reads: “Requires designated voter registration agencies to submit change of address information to Secretary of State for purposes of updating voter registration.”
