Voting is not a right

One of my favorite conservative bloggers, Dr. Bruce of Faith and Facts happened to say something in a post today I found myself in a bit of disagreement with:

I am praying that over 150,000,000 people will register and vote in this election season. The opportunity to vote is both a right and a privilege. With the advent of the Internet, online voter registration is easier than ever. While concerns over voter fraud have attorneys piling up the fees, it should not keep anyone away from the polls. You should register online and vote.

If I were to pray about such a thing, I’d basically be praying for the opposite. It is now October, just a few weeks before election day. I’ll go out on a limb here and say the vast majority of those who have existed through the primaries and all the hullabaloo that has been this election season, and haven’t registered to vote yet - have not already made it a priority, should just stay home that day and forget about it.

Voting is serious business and it should be left to serious people who are already invested and engaged. If someone needs to be bribed, cajoled, begged, or pleaded with before they’ll get off their dead ass and go register, they shouldn’t be involved in the political process. If someone needs to track them down and stick a registration form in their face and give them a pep talk, they shouldn’t be voting.

Just my opinion. I’m not necessarily calling for a law against it - just saying what I think. It’s sort of like my position that people shouldn’t go out and feed vagrants (aka homeless) “out of the goodness of their hearts.” But that’s another post.

There is a big difference between voting for a candidate and picking a candidate. There are already enough people who will pick one of the candidates November 4th rather than vote for one. What do I mean by that? I’m saying voting means knowing what is going on in the world, having a set of ideas about what should be done based on sound principles, and knowing the candidates well enough to distinguish which one is most likely going to further your agenda. If a history of moose hunting, skin color, who has the nicest smile, and the like are a consideration, that is picking a candidate.

Anyone who has been paying attention, who knows what is happening in this country (is happening to this country) already has all the motivation they need and has already made arrangements to engage in the process of electing our next president and members of Congress. Anyone who doesn’t know enough to feel invested, or knows but doesn’t care enough to open a phone book, make a phone call, and find out what they need to do to become involved, doesn’t belong in a voting booth.

Even if there were a Constitutional right for individuals to vote (and there isn’t) I still wouldn’t encourage anyone to go round people up. There is a right to freedom of speech but I don’t go around trying to talk people into expressing themselves. There is a right to bear arms but I don’t beg anyone to buy a gun.

I can’t help the fact that a lot of uninformed Americans are going to be pulling levers for wrong reasons this election on their own steam, but I can discourage my friends from rounding up more of them.

Tags: vote, election, ballot,