Asheville City Council decided to allow people to register voters in its transit station. The matter came before council after Gillian Kearns challenged the city for telling him he could not. Councilwoman Holly Jones saw absolutely nothing political about registering voters at a location patronized by people who saw nothing wrong with taking subsidies for mass transit and would have a sure fire ride to the poles. She requested that a special exemption be made to the policy to allow voter registration while maintaining a prohibition on pamphleteering, street preaching, and similar activities. City Attorney Bob Oast said registering voters was a free speech activity, and the courts have determined if one is to allow one free speech activity in a venue, they must allow all. The general feeling on council was that it was important to register voters, and so they asked staff to draft a policy for next week that would allow registering voters at the transit station, but not on other municipal property. This would bias the sample turning out to the poles in future elections to favor those who love mass transit, while excluding the nature lovers who congregate in parks, the athletes who patronize the tennis courts, and other special interests enjoying their pet social services. The saddest part of the story is there is no way to mass produce the normal guy who works on no-soliciting private property, lives in a private home, and does not go anywhere to partake of the government largesse.
by Leslee Kulba
Wild West blogger