No, not actual minor children. Adults who aren't grown up enough to even be bothered to take part in the civic process and who can't even be bothered to take the time to register to vote. If you can't even be bothered to register, how the hell can you be expected to even know why you're voting and for whom you're voting?

Show voting initiative

6/12/17

Liberal lawmakers believe that if voters can’t be bothered to register to vote, well, then Massachusetts should just eliminate the inconvenience of registration. Yes, the biennial push to accommodate voters who have shown zero interest in participating in the democratic process is underway again on Beacon Hill.

A legislative committee last week took testimony on a bill that would automatically register eligible adults to vote — no special trip required, not even a separate form to fill out. Another bill would allow for election day registration at the polling place.

Supporters lament that more than 600,000 eligible voters in Massachusetts aren’t registered, and insist it’s vital to remove all existing “barriers” to voting.

Because heaven forbid we have adults making personal choices about whether to participate in the election process! Nope, not if self-interested politicians have anything to say about it.

Sen. Cynthia Creem (D-Newton), sponsor of the bills, said last week that registering to vote should be “painless.” We’d argue it already is. Voters can fill out a simple form at the local town or city hall. Or at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Or at scores of other sites that serve as voter registration agencies.

Under current law, those designated agencies distribute voter registration forms and transmit them to relevant election officials. But under Creem’s bill, just by filling out an application for services at a designated agency — for a library card, or for unemployment or welfare benefits, among others — eligible individuals would be automatically registered to vote in the community where they live. No separate form or advance permission required. An applicant could only opt out in writing.

The change would be costly. Town clerks say if enacted as written it would require significant funding to update the state’s central voter registry, and given the current state of budgetary affairs that ought to be a disqualifier right there.

The bill infantilizes adults who can very well take the initiative on their own to register and cast a ballot. It’s a thinly-veiled attempt to boost Democratic support at the polls. (A related bill would automatically register all Massachusetts college students to vote — need we say more?) These bills should be shelved.

 

Yeah. That will solve the problem. If they don't want to vote, it's their choice. Believe it or not, some people could care less about politics, and stay out of it.

 

Case in point:

Puerto Rican voters back statehood in questioned referendum

6/11/17

Puerto Rico's governor announced that the U.S. territory overwhelmingly chose statehood on Sunday in a nonbinding referendum held amid a deep economic crisis that has sparked an exodus of islanders to the U.S. mainland.

Nearly half a million votes were cast for statehood, about 7,600 for free association/independence and nearly 6,700 for the current territorial status, according to preliminary results. Voter turnout was just 23 percent, leading opponents to question the validity of a vote that several political parties had urged their supporters to boycott.

And the U.S. Congress has final say in any changes to Puerto Rico's political status.

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Twenty-three percent....twenty-three percent of eligible voters turned up to vote in the referendum. Does anyone really think that the voters of Puerto Rico care about whether they become a state or not? Doesn't look it to me.

 

Ya know, I couldn't WAIT to vote when I turned 18. The day I turned 18, first I went to the Post Office to register for Selective Service. From there, I went to City Hall and registered to vote.

In Junior High School, in 7th grade, no less, we had a class called "Presidential Elections". It was captivating. Miss Van Winkle (Yep, that was her name) made it one of THE MOST INTERESTING classes a junior high schooler could take. THAT was civics.

 

I didn't have to register for the draft.

 

I burned my draft card. Right after I reenlisted.

 

Let's registrar everybody when their parents apply for a SS number for them.

 

So what's the problem here?

 

We need more teachers like Ms Van Winkle...

 

Today's students and google are trying to make teachers obsolete.