Fraud Waiting to Happen

[I wrote this up a week ago, but never got around to posting it. I figure it was probably too late to change it for this time around anyway, but it'd be nice to consider before the next election.]

Yeah, I've been kind of quiet on here recently. I had a long argument with several family members in e-mail a few weeks back, culminating in one of the people involved arguing against the progressive tax system ultimately proposing an alternative that results in nearly exactly the same effective tax rate at all levels of income... just calculated in a different way.

I got so exasperated that I stopped writing about politics for a while. The truth is, there's not much time to change anyone's mind at this point anyway...

But, I learned today of something that I think needs to be fixed, and I wanted to comment on it.
Now, to begin with, I'm sure that the people who are doing this have the best of intentions, but... Apparently, at least here in NH, lists of which people have voted are available to the campaigns, ostensibly so that they can contact their supporters who have not yet voted and "get out the vote", offering rides and encouragement, etc.

But here's the scoop: this should NOT be allowed as long as identification is not required at the polling places. Now, I'm not one that's calling for ID in order to vote, I think our current system works pretty well. But let's not make it that easy to commit fraud by presenting lists to both sides of people who have not yet voted.

(Technically, no such lists are presented, it's only lists of people who HAVE voted, but if you have a pretty good list of registered voters and get a list of who has voted, it's not difficult to find the people who HAVEN'T.)

My feeling is that the "ride to the polls" service on both sides is pretty well publicized. There's simply no reason that any citizen who wishes to vote should fail to be able to do so due to lack of transportation. Thus, if you don't care enough to bother to vote, I'm not sure your vote should count just because someone was able to guilt you into it.

Especially when you compare that to the potential for people showing up to the polls claiming to be someone they aren't and casting a ballot that the actual citizen might not have agreed with.

Of course, the best way to make sure your own personal vote isn't stolen by someone who supports different priorities than you do is to make sure to cast your own vote, but so long as nearly 40% of our society can't be bothered to show up and cast a vote, these lists are a dangerous precedent to set.

Liam.