Get Out the Vote???

Today is Election Day.  Oddly, I am not going to ask you to vote.  [More on that later.]

Voting patterns are interesting; some are predictable, others present a mystery.  For example, why do Minnesotans vote more than anyone else in the country?  Why are Texas and West Virginia, two states with nothing in common in size, geography or demographics, at the bottom of that list of voters?  If you are female, older, and well educated you are more likely to vote.  Eighteen to 29 year olds are the least engaged—strange for people who are sure they know it all.  Hispanics vote the least, followed closely by blacks. 

Why would any citizen not vote?  

            If I had my way, every eligible citizen would be given a free picture ID, periodically updated with no more than a 7 year old picture and a valid address which they would use to vote.  Voting should be easy and convenient.  Early voting is wonderful, absentee ballots are great, and I welcome the day that I can vote on line.  That being said, the sanctity of the vote is of paramount importance. 

Let’s take the example of an Ohio woman who voted twice in 2008 (justifying her criminal actions by saying she wanted her man to win).  Ignoring the, “one man, one vote” principle, she voted both by absentee and at the polls.  Her first vote was hers to cast as she wished.  Good for her.  But her second vote costs good Americans (those who believe in obeying the law) three votes.  It takes one honest vote to negate her crooked vote.   Then it takes a second honest vote to replace the bootlegged one.  It then takes a third honest vote to replace the vote lost just to replace the illegitimate vote.  Ms. Slimeball, through her criminal actions, has out voted the good guys by a 3-1 ratio.   But, guarding the vote is the law’s problem.  [Personally, I want each one of these insects found out and their right to vote rescinded for the rest of their sneaking, lying lives.  But I digress.]

What I am really thinking about is the massive effort to register voters and then beg them to get to the polls.  One intellectually challenged Congresswoman from the Houston area actually offered voters a chance at a raffle for voting.  This is, off course, illegal (no different than the frontier days when a shot of whiskey was offered for a vote).  The thing that shatters my faith in Congress is that Rep. Mushforbrains, didn’t know (or care) that it was illegal, until confronted by the press.

As I said, I want everyone who is eligible to vote.  I am ready to make it as easy as protection of the integrity of the process allows.   But, it is time to stop cajoling these slackers to get to the polls.  I have registered to vote when I had to walk several blocks to get to City Hall.  I have hauled my girls in a wagon behind me to get to the polls.  I have stood in freezing lines covered in sleet to vote.  If you are too lazy, too ignorant, too self-absorbed to haul your sorry ass to the local library and register, or the neighborhood church to vote, I am neither going to beg you or regret your absence.  Do what is right, or shut up. 

Reminding an adult to vote is like reminding them to wash their hands after using the toilet.  If you have to ask, you’ve lost the battle. 

I voted, because I keep the faith.