Having It My Way

 

For a democracy, our system is pretty undemocratic in quite a few ways, and it starts with voting. Some states want to see as many people vote as legally possible, while others are bent on keeping those it deems unqualified from doing so. Even at this nation’s founding, only the "right” people could vote. They had to be men, to start with.

In my opinion, which I’m not always so humble about, I think it’s time we nationalized all general federal elections, applying the same set of rules to everything from registration to ballot-casting and counting. All deadlines would be the same, as would the rules for eligibility, with sufficient access points to ensure that voters wouldn’t have to stand in long lines, even in high-turnout races. These rules would apply to elections for federal offices -- the Senate and the House as well as for President. It would be the same in all 50 states and possessions where voting in such elections happens.

Now you will obviously say, that would deprive the states of the right to control their own election process. Well, not entirely. For the moment at least, they could continue with their current systems for in-state and local elections, from governor and state legislature on down.

Next you will say, that’s ridiculous, then there would be two different sets of elections. That’s enormously expensive and outrageously inefficient. Correct. But if the states simply adopted the federal rules for all the elections they conduct, it would save time, money, and paperwork.

If you are a constitutional lawyer, you are probably laughing so hard that you have spewed out your coffee and tears are rolling down your cheeks. But I’m not through! I think there should be a federal Department of Elections with its own cabinet secretary. States generally have this function; why shouldn’t the federal government?

Discrimination rears its head in many forms, but the one power that citizens share equally, at least in theory, is the right and the ability to vote. When we drive from one side of the country to the other, the rules of the road are similar enough that we can easily continue our journey without having to learn a new set of rules at each state border. Why can’t voting be like that?