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Same day voter registration a bad idea

April 27, 2014

I continue to be amazed by some of our legislators. Why any of them would think that Same Day Voter Registration is a good idea is beyond me. The potential for fraud is obvious. Same day registration does not give our Dept. of Elections time to verify eligibility. Just look at what happened in North Carolina and elsewhere.

Voting is a serious business. It's not as if the President wakes up one day and says, "Tomorrow we vote!" and it takes us all by surprise. We know that in early November, every two years, we vote. It is not news. There are TV ads, radio ads and signs covering our roadsides that make it impossible to ignore.

In two years (730 days) if you have made time to get a haircut, go to the grocery store, visit friends, go to church, take in a movie, go out to eat, go to the library or just take a walk, then why can't you find time to register to vote? It's not rocket science. If you need help, call the Dept of Elections, ask a friend, a minister, look on the Internet or call the political party headquarters of your choice. And, by the way, the same applies to Voter IDs.

And if you can't manage any of these things, then perhaps you shouldn't be voting. If you don't care enough to put aside the time, which is only minutes, then it can't be that important to you.

In this age of instant gratification, Same Day Voter Registration is the wrong incentive, just like the bad old days when a two-dollar bill and a half-pint of gin were used to entice a vote.

Eva Dickey
Dover

 

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