The Franklin County No Stupid Voter Left Behind Act of 2010
Geesh I hate ideas like this:
With a 3-0 vote this morning, Franklin County commissioners agreed to send all registered voters an invitation to cast an early ballot, an effort to increase participation in the May 4 primary.
The county will spend $427,650 to print, process and mail applications and ballots to those who wish to vote at home. The county Board of Elections had requested $717,995.
“We have to be so frugal in these times,” Commissioner Paula Brooks said yesterday, before the vote. “But at the same time, we want to make sure everyone gets to vote. So we will get it done.”
To save $86,725, the resolution approved by commissioners this morning won’t pay residents’ costs to return the application for an absentee ballot. The county, however, will prepay postage when voters return ballots.
To further economize, commissioners also will bundle applications for voters who live together. The county would save about $65,000 in bulk-rate postage by sending one envelope apiece to 409,000 households instead of 650,000 individual voters.
Brooks knows times are tight, but Democrat commissioners will spare no expense to open the door to endless voter fraud while make sure every dopey OSU student Democrat remembers to put down the bong and fill out a ballot.
Without having to give an excuse to vote absentee, instead of election day, Ohio has “election month.” Forms are at the BMV, the library, the post office, and online. Organizations, parties, and the Ohio Secretary of State will mail you forms. And people will harass you on the street until they are blue in the face to register. If someone can’t figure out how to register in Ohio, then they have far more serious problems in their lives.
Is it terrible to ask voters to put in a little bit of effort in order to be able to vote? I know such a proposal would never get through Congress, but I wouldn’t even mind finding ways to limit voting: such as a 3rd grade-level English comprehension quiz or even a very low fee to defray costs and make ACORN-style fraud vastly more expensive.
Or if lots of early voting is the key, go with John Fund’s advice and at least have voters cast ballots in person to make fraud more difficult.
As Paul Weyrich said, this is the “Goo-Goo (good government) Syndrome.” And for the cause of limited government, it is not good.
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