It is interesting and a little sad to see how the Election Day voter registration issue managed to fall along party lines.
Almost as soon as Gov. LePage signed the bill into law last June, Republicans and Democrats were lining up on opposing sides.
Republican partisans would have us believe our voting system is an archaic mess, vulnerable to fraud and probably being exploited at every turn. Democrats argue the legislation is a Republican attack on the right to vote as it raises the bar for registration.
We have heard arguments on both sides of the issue but we can’t help but feel this has become a good example of what happens when a more or less straightforward idea becomes politicized.
We refuse to accept this as a political battleground.
Voting should not be a Democratic or Republican, them or us, issue. This is “our” issue. It belongs to all of us, collectively.
We suggest looking at it with the common sense Mainers are supposedly famous for.
An investigation by LePage’s own Secretary of State Charlie Summers managed to confirm exactly one case of voter fraud… from 2002. What that tells us is there may be a problem. However, one instance of fraud hardly confirms a crisis.
If you think it’s reasonable that someone should be able to walk up to the polls, register and vote the same day, vote ‘yes’ on Question 1.
If you don’t think it’s too much to ask for someone to make it to his or her town office and register to vote at any point in the year prior to Election Day, vote ‘no’ on Question 1.
Either way, when someone on either side of the issue tells you this is a crisis, an attack on democracy itself, look them dead in the eye and tell them you know a crisis when you see one.
