Caveat. I am not a lawyer but I can read (at least I could until my vision deteriorated to the point where I have to have someone else read to me) and I also have a reasonable amount of horse sense acquired through many trips around the block.
The Constitution has a number of references to voting. All but one of them refers only to US citizens. That being the case, it seems to me that the current loose practices of registering voters violates the Constitution and those who installed laws and regulations such as motor-voter, "show a utility bill," and similar rules are derelict in their duty to faithfully uphold the Constitution.
The proper way to establish voter roles is to require every person registering to vote to present a valid, verifiable birth certificate. It also seems to me that if any such birth certificate does not show that at least one parent is a citizen of the United States then, under the 14Th Amendment, the subject of that birth certificate is not eligible to vote.
Congress should provide funds for each state to arrange for everyone who first registered on or after January 1st, 2000 to re-register by presenting a valid verifiable birth certificate. States should be required to verify a birth certificate where there is reasonable suspicion that the person registering has not met all citizenship requirements.
U.S. citizens are supposed to know how to read, write, and speak English. Therefore, ballots for federal elections should be printed only in English. (Think of the money that would save.)
Voting in US elections is a right accorded to US citizens. It is not a privilege to be exercised willy-nilly by anyone who happens to be residing in the United States. If it were, think of all the people who could register to vote (and who probably already have) under the loose procedures we have in many jurisdictions: illegal immigrants, foreign students, foreign nationals working in US offices of their companies,
foreign embassy personnel who dwell outside the embassy compound, foreign athletes and theatrical personnel who spend much time in the United States pursuing their vocations, people here on tourist visas, and so on.
I am aware that many states require voter ID. That's fine except that if the original registration was illegitimate then the idea is useless. I don't know how many states require birth certificates or naturalization papers but it seems to me that every state should do so. I hope that some day some individual or group will start a snowball by bugging local authorities who set the rules until they require birth certificates. (I would love to do it myself but I no longer have the stamina to do such things.)
I guess that's enough rambling for now. On the other hand, I hope somebody else will start rambling.
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Some of your voter eligibility is wrong. I have no US parents, but I'm a US citizen and have been for a good long time. I can vote. However, tragically, I can never be president of this great country. THAT is what my birth certificate indicates.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can't figure out in all this brouhaha is who the heck does NOT have an ID card? How does he or she buy cigarettes or get into an office building to apply for social security or get the kids into school?
Voter registration has become a political issue, not to guarentee a legitmate voters rights, but to allow illegitmate voters to vote for an issue or person. It beats ACORN for gaining access to voting, when not a legitmatr voter.
ReplyDeleteTo BangkokAl:
ReplyDeleteMea culpa. Thirty-nine lashes with a wet noodle. In the first sentence of the third paragraph, I should have included "or naturalization papers." As far as the requirement that the president can only be a native-born US citizen is concerned, I don't know it's background. It is interesting to note that Alexander Hamilton, who was intimately involved in the establishment of our new government, was himself a native of the West Indies and thus would have been ineligible to become President if not for the provision allowing anyone who was a US citizen at the time of adopting the Constitution to become President. So there must have been some special reason. Perhaps some Constitutional lawyer or historian knows the background but I can only speculate. Perhaps they feared someone born and raised in another country might tend to favor that country over the US in international relations and trade. That's just wild speculation. I will do some more research and see if I can figure out the reason for this.
ID cards are easy to get even for people who are here illegally. If they can't pick up one in some legal fashion, they can buy a fake one. ID cards are not necessarily proof of US citizenship.
If you noticed any other errors, please comment and I will address them.