In the United States, if you don’t buy a gun for several years, you do not lose your Second Amendment right to bear arms. If you never write a letter to the editor or participate in a street demonstration, you retain your full First Amendment rights to free speech. If you skip church for years on end, the government cannot stop you from finally attending a service.
But according to a decision by the Supreme Court this week, if you fail to cast a ballot, you can be removed from the voter rolls and denied your fundamental right to vote.
The case, Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, involved Ohio’s flawed presumption that citizens who do not vote during a two-year period have moved out of their voting district and become ineligible to vote there. Ohio sends these voters a postcard that is easily overlooked and, if they don’t respond or vote over the next four years, the state cancels their voter registration.
That’s what happened to Larry Harmon, a Navy veteran and software engineer who voted in […]
It is somewhat alarming that a state can now purge registered voters that don’t vote for several cycles, but it could simultaneously encourage voters to consistanty participate in their right to vote. I find it hard to feel bad for the Navy Veteran who didn’t vote because he didn’t like the candidates. Anyone who has participated in our voting system will be aware of the plethora of items to vote for during the primaries and general elections, beyond president or governor. I know it can be difficult to get out and vote for many people in the US, but if democracy is to survive, its citizens must actively participate. Rather than feeling like a victim, if you are purged from the voter registrar for consistantly failing to vote, you should probably feel a bit ashamed of not doing your part.