I’ve long been a believer in the notion that, a) people should have to go to the Board of Elections to register to vote, and, b) if they want to vote they need to appear at their polling station on election day to do it. That’s it. Pretty simple.
I used to get in arguments with the Marxist “participatory democrats” in grad school about this. My argument was that the “participatory” folks wanted cheap participation in the political process, whereas I felt there should be some buy-in, a cost, on the part of citizens in exchange for the privilege of voting.
That cost includes spending time understanding issues, making the effort to register at the designated place of registration, and taking the time to go to the polls. If a citizen is unwilling to do these pretty simple things, in my view he should just stay home on election day.
But the notion of voters actually taking some responsibility for their franchise began deteriorating with “motor voter,” over which Barack Obama famously defended ACORN as an attorney. That opened the floodgates, and soon you could register almost anywhere, and be registered by anyone from left-wing scam artists to street performers working for ACORN.
Tom Blumer at Pajamas Media also thinks early voting is a travesty, and he lists 10 reasons why. His No. 8 is my No. 1. He also points out the dangers of early voting by mail.
