The Oct. 21 staff editorial, “Early Voting Helps Democracy,” misses an extremely important point while gravely underestimating another. The editorial barely mentions the increased odds of voting fraud when polls are open for weeks. Consider events over the last two weeks, such as the incident in Ohio where a man registered over 100 fake voters in exchange for crack cocaine or counties that have reported more registered voters than residents. Consider also recent court rulings in some states allowing people who show up at the wrong polling place to cast a provisional ballot. It doesn’t take too much of an imagination to figure out how the system could be manipulated.
The most important point that the editorial missed comes from Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 of the United States Constitution, which states, “The Congress may determine the time of [choosing] the Electors...” Since 1845, the Congress has asserted their ability to do that by calling the Tuesday after the first Monday in November the day for Congressional elections and Presidential (elector) elections. Having an early voting system which leaves the polls up for weeks completely subverts an act of Congress backed up the U.S. Constitution.
I fail to see how a system which has gaping holes for fraud and completely violates the Constitution is “good for democracy.” On the contrary, it just gives lawmakers and judges more reason to think that they have no restrictions on what they can and can’t do. I can’t think of anything worse for our Republic than that.
Grant Degler
Trinity ’06
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