The news today is all about voting — elections, how they are run, how balloting methods are changing, who has cast ballots — who tried but was turned away and why.<\/p>\n
Tom and I voted a couple weeks ago by absentee ballot, so as to avoid feeling an emotional response to late-released ads and lies.\u00a0 We have been turning off the radio and television the last few months as much as possible as campaign commercials became more and more negative.
\nWe studied the voters’ pamphlets, we read the newspapers’ opinion pages, we discussed the issues on the ballots (and some of the candidates) and then we sat down one night and marked our ballots.\u00a0 We are reasonably certain our votes will be counted, and that they will count.<\/p>\n
But I have concerns about people who vote at the polls using computerized ballotting machines… \u00a0 no paper trail, no way to go back one last time and check your marks before you fold the ballot and turn it in.\u00a0 No way to challenge the results that come out of the machines!
\nIn many states now, when you show up at the polling place, you must show picture ID or in at least one state (South Carolina) you must have your official voter registration card.\u00a0 No matter if you are the governor with lots of picture ID — without that official card you may not vote.<\/p>\n
So for people who are less organized (as the South Carolina governor apparently is), or those who are less literate but still capable of casting an informed vote… \u00a0 there are some very real risks of disenfranchisement.\u00a0 Similar requirements were not placed on people who voted absentee — at least not in our state.<\/p>\n
It feels to me like some of the old “Jim Crow” laws:\u00a0 if you cannot read at a certain level, you may not vote.\u00a0 Or if you cannot pay the poll tax you may not vote.\u00a0 Or if you don’t speak English as well as the precinct workers…\u00a0 or…\u00a0 Sure, some people who obviously ought to be allowed to vote will be denied that right, but isn’t it better than allowing just anyone<\/u> to vote?<\/em>\u00a0 [That last sentence, by the way, was meant as sarcasm.] The news today is all about voting — elections, how they are run, how balloting methods are changing, who has cast ballots — who tried but was turned away and why. Tom and I voted a couple weeks ago by absentee ballot, so as to avoid feeling an emotional response to late-released ads and lies.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestidhams.com\/kathleen\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe ranting by conservatives about unregistered voters and non-citizen voters seems to have overshadowed the real problems in the last two presidential elections… many people who are eligible to vote may be turned away at the polls this year.\u00a0 What ever happened to allowing all citizens the right to vote?\u00a0 It will be interesting in the next major election to see if anyone is denied the right to vote for president based on a lack of permanent fixed address…\u00a0 people are being disenfranchised slowly, one small group at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"