Friday, January 13, 2012

Two misdirected efforts concerning voter fraud

We have the Republicans loudly claiming voter fraud. Oops, that's ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) claiming voter fraud and its Republican lackeys obeying their contributors. Oops, that's bribers.

Nobody has ever proven any wide-spread voter fraud other than a few instances, and mostly ignorance on the part of convicted felons who forgot or were not informed that their voting rights hadn't been restored.

On the other hand we have Democrats loudly claiming voter disenfranchisement, especially of minorities, students, and the elderly. I wonder what percentage of the non-voting population these people represent.

We had a 63% turnout in 2008, that's over a third of the eligible voters who didn't even show up!Why not work harder get more of the 37% to show up at elections? Blaming the Republicans for the turnout is far less productive than encouraging the no-shows. The blame could be allowing no-shows to absolve themselves of their dereliction of good citizenship.

Rather than getting petitions and creating court cases, why not raise money for publicity to encourage people to vote? Put up billboards with catchy slogans. Give out or sell lawn signs and bumper stickers:

Vote! Be the Demōs in Democracy!
Don't blame me! I voted!
Be counted! Vote!