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Not Everyone Should Vote
By Doug Patton
August 6, 2001

America is caught up in "Reform Fever." In 1992, Ross Perot stirred up his 19 percent army with calls for "reform." In the last few years, the American people are said to have demanded campaign finance reform, health care reform and now election reform.

Ever since last year's election fiasco in Florida, the conventional wisdom has been that our election system is broken and in need of "reform." In response to this "crisis," former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter recently co-chaired the National Commission on Federal Election Reform and issued a 114-page report on the subject.

Predictably, its conclusions are flawed and its recommendations overreaching. Federal, state and local governments are called upon to implement sweeping, expensive reforms, with the federal government once again expanding the scope of its power.

The commission recommends that every state should permit "provisional voting" by any voter who claims to be qualified to vote in that state. This means that if a person not listed on any voter roll shows up at the polls claiming to be registered, election officials should allow him or her to vote "provisionally," with the validity of that person's claim to be verified later.

Another recommendation is that Congress should enact legislation to hold presidential and congressional elections on a national holiday, thereby encouraging additional voter participation. How many non-voters in your neighborhood will make the effort to vote rather than simply taking another mandated day off?

The commission calls upon each state to allow for restoration of voting rights to otherwise eligible citizens who have been convicted of a felony once they have fully served their sentence, including any term of probation or parole.

The commission calls on the federal government, on a matching basis with the governments of the 50 states, to provide funds that will add another $300-$400 million to the level of annual spending on election administration in the United States. The federal share will require a federal contribution totaling $1-2 billion spread out over two or three years.

The commission calls for the federal responsibilities envisioned in this report to be assigned to a new agency, an Election Administration Commission (EAC).

Provisional voting? Authorizing felons to vote? A national holiday to entice voters to the polls? Vast federal powers to implement and enforce these recommendations? And another federal bureaucracy to oversee it all?

What we are witnessing is a continuation of the mentality that says that everyone should voter. It manifested itself in the "Motor Voter Act," wherein Democrats assumed they could vastly increase their numbers by allowing, encouraging or sometimes forcing people to register to vote when they renewed their drivers licenses or filed for welfare.

The truth is that not everyone should vote. In fact, the case can be made that many people should not vote because they are ignorant of the candidates, the issues, or even a rudimentary understanding of the system that affords them such incredible liberty.

I have never missed an opportunity to vote since I was first eligible. I prepare myself for the privilege and the duty of voting by studying the issues and the various candidate's positions on those issues. I don't consider that heroic or unusual. It strikes me as the least I can do, and it used to upset me greatly when a 35-year-old man would say to me, "I've never even registered to vote."

That type of person no longer bothers me, because I've come to believe that he has no business stepping into a voting booth and casting an ill-informed ballot that may elect someone under whose authority I will have to labor.

Before we leap headlong into any more "reforms," we should take a look at the apathy of the American people and realize that only those who are truly motivated to vote should be encouraged to do so.

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor to federal, state and local candidates and elected officials. His work can be viewed weekly on GOPUSA.

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