Politics
Obama Eyes Mandatory Voting
A new drive is under way that would make opting out of an election no longer an option.
N BY MATTHEW LYSIAK
ow that the constitu- tionality of an individual mandate for health insur- ance has been upheld,
another compulsory obligation may be on the way: a “voting mandate” that would fi ne voters who fail to show up at the polls. It may sound far-fetched, but over
30 nations already have some form of universal registration for voting.
Conservative columnist George F. Will drew widespread attention in Decem- ber when he predicted the Obama administration will mount “a drive to federalize voter registration, a step toward making voting mandatory.” The Internet is the tool Democrats
plan to use to get all eligible citizens registered. In the 111th Congress, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of Cali- fornia introduced the Voter Registra- tion Modernization Act to “allow any
eligible citizen to register to vote over the Internet for all federal elections occurring after Jan. 1, 2014.” That bill languished once Republicans took over the House. Statements from U.S. Attorney Gen-
eral Eric Holder suggest that universal online registration has support at the highest levels of the government. In December 2011, Holder declared: “It should be the government’s responsi- bility to automatically register citizens to vote, by compiling — from data- bases that already exist — a list of all eligible residents in each jurisdiction.” One year later, after President
Obama was re-elected, he made it clear that the present voting registra- tion system was in need of an over- haul. He described it as “antiquated” and “the single largest barrier that American voters currently face.”
DUTY OR COMPULSION? People view voting as a civic duty, and are happy to comply. Obama would make it a requirement .
32 NEWSMAX | MARCH 2013
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