Just 5 weeks from today We The People, who choose to participate in the process, will go to the polls and vote. As I listen to the arguments concerning our North Carolina Voter Photo I.D. Constitutional Amendment, the main argument is we should make it as easy as possible for EVERYBODY to vote and in NO WAY restrict access to the ballot box. Well, I’m willing to ask the question, “Should everybody vote?” In my opinion there is a simple one-word answer to this question, “NO!” If a fellow Citizen is not willing to do those basic things needed to vote, including get a regular State-issued photo I.D., register to vote by the defined date to assure they are legally eligible to vote and show up at their assigned precinct, then I would have to say they are not personally invested enough in the process to participate in this system of self-government.
As we have watched the whole concept of Election Day erode away, I’m more convinced that we also watch our government drift. The whole foundation of our Republic is the democratic process. Or is it? I would contend that the true foundation of our Republic is contained in Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution- “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.”
The only required elections in the Constitution are for the US House of Representatives, and following the 17th Amendment, the US Senate, and the requirement that the Electors, as members of the Electoral College, to gather every four years and appoint the President and Vice-President Nowhere else does the US National Government have ANY say in elections. Anything else that the National Government has done in intervening in the election process has been done outside of the Constitution except for saying that IF a State chooses to hold elections; they cannot discriminate against any Citizen from participating on the basis of their race or gender as long as they have achieved the age of majority. Outside of this, elections are designed to be under the exclusive dominion of the States.
Do you believe that the Founders would have approved of the national government “controlling” every operational aspect of every State’s elections? If so, don’t you think they would have specified such in the Constitution? Or, do you believe that the Founders believed that elections were a 10th Amendment issue, as they did most everything in the governance of the Citizens? As a student of our history, I believe there is abundant evidence of the latter. We The People, in the form of our States, need to tell the National Government to “Butt Out” in the set-up and operations of our elections, period.
Does anybody believe that the Founders would agree that politicians should be able to use government largess to buy votes? I believe this again should be a State’s decision. Since the Founders never believed that the National Government was to be a vessel of charity through the confiscation and distribution of Citizens’ assets, I can’t believe they would abide this. If those in a State chose to allow their STATE Government to confiscate and redistribute the assets of themselves and their fellow Citizens, who live in that State, so be it. But understand that every Citizen has the unrestricted right to move to another State. I believe this would “self-correct” this situation pretty quickly. Shouldn’t a State also preclude anyone whose only financial subsistence is through government largesse from voting? I would say a loud “YES!”
Does anybody really believe that our Founders thought that elections would have become what they have today? I cannot believe that our Founders would have believed most of what the government, and the Citizens, designed by their Divinely-Inspired Constitution has evolved into today. They would look at how the National Government has encroached on the States and be startled, and deeply saddened. And the fact we have lost control of the main implement they gave US to correct the Republic when it ran off its track, the ballot box, would, I’m sure, cause them to be repulsed.
Getting back to the original question, “Should everybody vote?” I’ll stand by “NO!”
