Even though the idea of voting is reported to be over 2500 years old, this July 4th will be the 236th Anniversary of the first vote in The United States of America. Today will be the first time I will ever cast a ballot, and I am more than happy to start my own tradition. But there still are many flaws in the system...
The first vote in the U.S. was in Philadelphia on July 4th 1776. Although it wasn't a public vote, this was a very important day in America. Just google the date, you'll see a few other things about this particular date that are pretty important :) It's incredible that the founders of this country claimed that, "All men are created equal," however slavery was still legal for another 89 years, black people weren't allowed to vote until 1870 (some states waited until the 1960's), and women weren't allowed to vote until 1920. How is this equal? Don't try to figure it out because it's not equal. It was never intended to be equal. Anyways, back to my point.
Through many years of Americans expressing their constitutional right for public protest, voting became available for anyone over the age of 18. I just recently changed my party affiliation from Independent to Republican so I can vote in today's Republican Primary. Maryland voting regulations impose a closed primary which means, if you are not a Republican, you have NO SAY in who the Republican presidential candidate will be. Now, remember, even though I am almost 30 years old, I have never voted before. I never thought I was educated enough on any candidate to go and vote, that just wouldn't be fair. This year is different. One thing that totally blew me away was when I dropped of my application to switch my party affiliation so I could vote for the first time, I asked the woman if I would receive my voter card in the mail before April 3rd. She said I would most likely get it before then, but it WOULD NOT MATTER IF I DIDN'T. So my response was, "Oh, so I just have to show my ID when I get there." She said, "Nope, you won't need that either, just tell them who you are and you'll be OK." I was immediately taken aback. You mean to tell me that I can just go vote with no voter registration card and no ID???? How does this make any sense?????
Think about this for a minute. What stops people for voting as dead people??? All you would have to do is look in the obituaries and show up at their voting station and say you are them and cast a vote. You could do this at every voting station in your area as a different dead person. This is happening all over the country and there is nothing we can do to stop it, except for change the voting laws. It should be MANDATORY in EVERY STATE to prove that you are who you say you are. Voter card, state ID, Driver's License, ANYTHING! This really boggles my mind. How can this be? How could you just go vote without proving that you are an eligible voter? You got me...
I am going to go vote here shortly and I really hope that the woman I spoke with at the voting office in Hagerstown was wrong. I have never been dead and I don't ever want to be but if I was, I would be pretty pissed off to think that I could have possibly voted for another 4 years of the same false promises...
Cheers!
K.A. Ball
thats pretty crazy they ask for no ID. i wonder if its like that in evey state. i have only voted once back in college and I think I had to show an ID. That was is Illinois.
ReplyDeleteI will find out here in about an hour. I really do hope the lady was wrong. Thanks for commenting!!!
ReplyDeleteWell, the lady was right. All they asked for was my party affiliation, my last name, address, and the month and year I was born. Pretty sad...
ReplyDeleteI don't believe you're required to have ID to vote in most states. Requiring someone to buy something in order to vote disenfranchises the poor. It wouldn't solve the problem anyway, how many people have you known with fake ID's?
ReplyDeleteA MD State ID card is only $20 and if people are poor enough to be on State Assistance they might as well get a free ID as well. Plus the ID's have magnetic strips on the back that can be scanned for info so fake ones wouldn't really work. There we go, problem solved. Everyone has an ID and all polling places have a scanner. They could also put a picture on the FREE voter card they send you. Right now it's just a worthless piece of paper.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to pay for all those "free" IDs and ID scanners right?
ReplyDeletePutting the picture on the voter card doesn't solve anything, it would just be more expensive and still easily faked.
Not that it matters anyway, anyone can register as an absentee voter and not even show up at a polling place.
http://www.elections.state.md.us/voting/absentee.html
We already paid for the electronic counters that barely work, what's a few million dollars on some scanners? :)
ReplyDeleteThe poor have to provide id for any other thing in life therefore the whole disenfranchising issue is out the window. You will never make a system perfect, you should however strive to make it as effective as possible and voter identification works better than not. If voters are not required to show id then why should there be rules and requirments for registration in the first place. The only political motivating to not require ids is to farther prepetuate a tradition of voter fraud. The big question to any platform is who benefits from the stance. In this case who commits voter fraud? Acorn was able to herd mass groups of illegals and poor to the polls to vote and even steal an election. The left espouses their compassion for the downtrodden but the truth is these people are useful idiots pushing an agenda as long as they don't lose benefits doled out ever so generously by the government. I for one think if you recieve government assistance you should not be allowed to cast a vote. Being that these benefits are volutary there would be no violation of rights. How do people think that worthless FDR maintained office for so long despite an all out assult on capitalism and the constitution of this great nation. I also feel federal employees should not be able to vote on the grouds that their voting is a conflict of interest. Should we allow an office be won by voters voting on their own personal pensions and benefits? should national policy be influenced because a block of voters don't want to lose their high paying government job. Many dissagree with me but alas, common sense is common sence regardless of who it offends.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting ob60d370-898e-.....you know who you are...lol!
ReplyDeleteit was caleb, not sure why it came up like that
ReplyDeleteKANSAS ROCKS, now that Sebilius is gone (though, I guess her new job can be more dangerous), but this election, FINALLY, you must show I.D., as of now! And I am supporting Ron Paul! I do NOT get a good feeling over Romney! Actually, I get nearly the same yucky feeling, in my gut, as I did w/ O! Add to that, anyone that the Media pushes on to the public, or the establishment declares the 'winner' BEFORE a single ballot is cast, is someone who is owned & pd for!
ReplyDeleteI also don't care for Romney arrogant & pushy attitude, his lack of knowledge of the constitution, his (several) comments (both this time & 4 yrs ago) stating that he'd have to see what other world nations would say before attacking/ placing sanctions on Iran (not once did he say anything about congress! & yes, this was a question asked in 2008, which should cause serious pause on why we really are attacking Iran, AGAIN.) Romney is also a flip flipper & a sweet talker. Only saying what we want to hear, rather than what must be done.
Paul, on the other hand, has been consistent! He is a true constitutionalist, he says what MUST be done, rather than what is the popular thing to say. And the best thing, is that his donations come from US! The American Citizens! Therefore, he owes NO ONE but Americans! Add that the media is doing everything to ignore him, & mislead the public, & that gives more certainty that he can't be bought :0)!