I may regret this since it sounds like most folks already have a strong opinion, but I'll try to answer your question regarding why "right to vote" is on the Democrats' agenda. Apologies in advance because this ended up being a lot longer than I expected.DOCAG79 said:
Can someone please explain to me why the Dems keep pushing the "right to vote" on their agenda? As far I know, if you are of legal age and a United States Citizen, you are eligible to vote! Am I wrong? They keep throwing that one out there with abortion and losing our democracy.
Is it about the inability to register? If so, if one is so incompetent/lazy to register, you should not vote in the first place. Still think all should show some form of ID at the very least.
While you're correct that everyone has the same right to vote, not everyone has the same access or ability to exercise that right. Just like we all have the right to bear arms under the 2nd amendment, but states place different restrictions on the exercise of that right. So in general you can think of "voting rights advocates" as comparable to "gun rights advocates" if that helps put things in perspective.
Also, it's important to keep in mind that our voting access is not just controlled by laws, but also the real world differences in our circumstances. A single mom working multiple jobs is going to have a harder time voting that a retiree with a flexible schedule. A senior who is physically disabled or has speech or hearing limitations will have a harder time voting than a healthy 30 year old with reliable transportation.
For my part, I think our elections must be secure and we should also do as much as possible to make the democratic process simple and encourage all citizens to participate. We have the means do this. There are numerous areas where voting rights advocates would say that access to voting is unnecessarily restricted or at least could be improved. I'll outline a handful of issues/topics (none of which have anything to do with voter ID), but this is by no means an exhaustive list.
Polling Locations on Texas College Campuses - Bills were introduced in the Texas legislature last year to prohibit polling locations on college campuses. Proponents say the bill is intended to keep campuses safe and prevent unknown people from coming on campus. Opponents say the real intent is to make it harder for college students to vote. Personally, I don't find the safety argument compelling given the state passed a law in 2019 designating campuses as public forums that every citizen has access to. This may seem like a small thing, but in swing states the decision to put polling locations in schools vs retirement homes vs BOTH can have an impact. https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2023/03/17/texas-schools-polling-sites
Texas Concurrent Majority - The Texas Republican party proposed adding concurrent majority to their 2024 platform. Concurrent majority means that any statewide elected official must win the majority of counties in the state. That means Harris county (4.3M people) and Loving county (64 people) each get one vote. Obviously the net effect is to erode the voting power of Texans in the larger counties. Some here may think that's ok. It's on page 7. https://convention.texasgop.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-TEMPORARY-Platform-FINAL.pdf
Texas SB1 - This was passed in 2021 as a measure to strengthen election security and integrity. Some provisions surely do that, but opponents say the law is designed to make it harder for some people to vote. Some of the measures in the law directly target practices Harris county had implemented to improve access, like drive through voting used by seniors or those with limited mobility. The law also did things like make it a felony for election officials to proactively distribute mail-in ballots applications. A FELONY for sending out a form to an already registered voter for that person to request a mail-in ballot if they so choose. Again, not for sending out ballots, for sending out application forms. The law did a number of other things, some of which have been struck down in court and some of which are still being litigated. https://www.lwv.org/newsroom/press-releases/major-victory-lawsuit-against-texas-anti-voter-law
Texas Voter Registration - Voting rights advocates would say we should encourage all citizens to participate in the democratic process and we should make the process easy to understand and easy to engage with. Texas is lagging in this space. For example, a 1983 Texas law requires that high schools distribute voter registration forms to eligible students. But only 25% of high schools in the state do this. The secretary of state's doesn't track compliance and there's no penalty for schools that don't follow the law. This may be a relatively minor thing, but for some students (like immigrants) school may be the only place they learn about how our process works. https://electionlab.mit.edu/articles/texas-high-schools-noncompliance-voter-registration-requirements
Related to this, Texas still relies on outdated registration mechanisms with two options. First, you can mail in a form. Paper and mail are both prone to mistakes and people who are more mobile (like the poor moving houses, or students leaving to college) are at greater risk or not catching these mistakes. Second, you can go to the DMV when you renew your license. This should be easy, but I'm sure everyone has noticed how much of a mess this has become over the past couple years with inadequate staffing and a broken reservation system. In this day and age there's no reason we shouldn't have a secure, fast and easy option for registering to vote online.
Prosecuting Election Fraud - We should enforce our laws and we should punish those who are trying to unfairly influence elections. However, voting rights advocates will say it's a problem when prosecutorial discretion is intended to create a chilling effect and discourage some votes from even trying to understand and engage with the voting process. For example, you can look at Crystal Mason in Texas. She had completed her prison sentence and thought she was eligible to vote. Her name wasn't on the list of registered voters so poll workers suggested she submit a provisional ballot which could be checked later, which she did. She was sentenced to 5 years in prison. A Texas appeals court overturned the conviction this year, but the Tarrant County DA is still considering whether to re-prosecute the case. Is this the best use of resources? https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/tarrant-da-defends-decision-to-pursue-re-conviction-of-crystal-mason-acquitted-of-illegal-voting-after-8-years/3535638/
Similarly, we can look at the efforts in Florida in 2022 to prosecute voter fraud. They filed charges against 20 people, but many of these people thought they were eligible because the state had issued them voter registration cards. If people are acting in good faith and trying to engage with the democratic process, I don't think we should be going out of our way to punish those individuals. I'd prefer to focus on understanding why the process broke down in the first place and how can we prevent those mistakes in the future. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/21/1144265521/florida-voter-fraud-cases-prosecution-update
Unrepresented Citizens - Residents of D.C., Puerto Rico and other US territories are tax paying citizens who don't have the same representation as most of us. Over 4M citizens don't have voting representation in the US House, Senate or Electoral College. Voting rights advocates will argue that these citizens should have a voice, whether that's through statehood or some other mechanism. It seems the primary objection to statehood is that it would disrupt the balance of power in the House, Senate and Electoral College.
Independent state legislatures - The independent state legislature theory is a legal theory that basically says state legislatures shouldn't be subject to oversight by state courts. Proponents say legislatures should be able to make any rules they want about holding (or not holding) elections and selecting electors, and state courts should have no role in making sure these rules adhere to the state constitution. The US Supreme Court rejected this theory last year, but some justices endorsed the theory. The concern is that a concerted effort could be made to place justices who will eventually buy into what is currently considered a crackpot theory. At that point there may not be anything stopping state legislatures from just overruling voters and selecting their own electors in presidential elections. I'd prefer a law or amendment now to clarify this instead of waiting for someone to play games with the courts. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/27/supreme-court-rejects-independent-state-legislature-theory-00103793
So, it's probably obvious that I have an opinion on most of these topics and I don't really expect to agree on everything. But hopefully this at least helps illustrate why "right to vote" is a meaty topic for a lot of people and one that I don't think we should dismiss flippantly.
