To the Editor:
Here in Lincoln County we are fortunate to have the town clerks and poll workers know most of us by name when we go to vote which makes voter fraud all but impossible. The state also has a database in place which is highly effective at preventing it, while same day registration makes Maine one of the top states in the country for voter participation.
In the 38 years we have had these voting laws in place there have been two instances of voter fraud.
So I was surprised to hear that the GOP in the 125th legislature decided to follow the lead of the other Republican controlled states and present laws ghostwritten by Americans for Prosperity (the “grassroots “conservative group funded by oil profiteers) and ALEC (the tea party legislative council) to change a system that encourages participation, and has worked well to prevent fraud.
Once again, they are creating a problem where one doesn’t exist. Or, as Rep McKane said on the House floor, just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.
Accusing the democrats of busing in activists from other districts to vote illegally, as was said in the Portland press by Charlie Webster (the secretary of state and chair of the GOP in Maine) is just over the top and patently untrue, as well as an offense to those of us who will be actively, legitimately, and legally voting against any and all Republicans in future elections. That was one of the tamer insults that were bandied about in the debate on the bill, and I for one am sick of that inflammatory rhetoric.
What will happen is that this new legislation will make it harder for low income people, students, and young people who move more frequently than most of us and who might not have the 25 bucks to change the address on the license (one of the bills will require picture ID) to vote.
That voting block just happens to vote for Democrats more often than not. The sections of the bill increasing voter monitors (more tea party volunteers I`m sure) challenging each and every voter who looks like a liberal, or a youth, or a poor person, or happens to have a brown skin will disqualify many legitimate voters, and is closer to fascism than democracy should be.
Apathy among the young and poor is bad enough without making it even harder for the ones who do care enough to vote to do so.
It also opens the door to voter caging which is where a group mails out registered letters marked with do not forward to student dorms and low income districts in August when the students are not in residence. The letters are returned and the student shows up in November to vote. The voter is challenged at the poll and if he /she is able to vote at all its on a provisional ballot, which is no good in event of a recount.
More on vote caging here – www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/a_guide_to_voter_caging/ from the New York School of Law.
The Americans for Prosperity Milwaukee group is being investigated (it’s illegal) for attempting to do it this past fall in Wisconsin, as reported in the Milwaukee Sentinel. The head of that group happens to be a Thomas Block, who was banned from participating in politics for several years for other dirty tricks in the past. He is now is the campaign manager for Herman Cain’s presidential bid. Is that the kind of guy “we the people ” want to run the country? Could that sort of thing happen here now in Maine? These voter suppression laws will certainly make it easier to do.
Chris Elliott, Waldoboro
