On voting, on occupying, and the like

As a whole, Americans tend not to care so much about how our democracy functions.

We pay more attention to, say, the American Idol voting system than to the way votes are cast in our elections.  But recently, news about voting is dominating the headlines, both nationally and locally.

Let’s start with the local. The IDS reported Monday that Monroe County Democrats are accusing Republicans of offering rewards in exchange for voting.

Ed Schwartzman, who owns Buffa Louie’s, is throwing a party for whichever fraternity or sorority has the best voter turnout. He also happens to be running for office.
Schwartzman said whether the votes are cast for him is “irrelevant.” As he points out, he has no way of knowing if people vote for him. But it’s also unlikely he’s clueless that greek houses are more likely to vote Republican than the general student body.  

A 1997 study found that greeks were more likely to have parents in country clubs and have higher family incomes than independents, both generally associated with conservative voting trends.

Last year, the Republicans on Bloomington’s City Council repeatedly rejected attempts to increase satellite voting on IU’s campus. Last September, election board member Jim Fielder told the IDS that “voting sites on the IU campus would bring students a feeling of entitlement rather than responsibility.”    

But we should feel entitled to vote. This is not to say that Democrats are blameless; they obviously have significant interest in increasing the turnout among the student population. Nevertheless, voting should always be made easier, not harder.

What we’re seeing in Bloomington is a partisan effort to manipulate voting laws in order to maximize “friendly” turnout and minimize “unfriendly” turnout by both parties. But IU students are not alone in having the whims of the major political parties affect their voting rights.

One of the most popular and interesting news stories during the past few months has been the effort by Republicans nationwide to limit early voting, increase minimum ID standards and reduce ease of voting.  

Republicans say it’s an effort to fight fraud. Florida’s recent changes to its election laws include efforts aimed at college students specifically and ID laws that would disproportionately affect poor and minority groups.

Voting “is a hard-fought privilege,” Florida Republican State Senator Michael Bennett said. “This is something people died for. Why should we make it easier?”
If I had set out to make a false statement, I couldn’t have outdone Bennett.

The people who died, I’d wager, would probably encourage us to not make voting difficult. They died to extend the franchise, not limit it. It’s sad to capitalize on their deaths to begin with, but to co-opt those deaths to suit a partisan agenda directly opposing that for which they fought is reprehensible.

What’s more, New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice noted in 2007 that “by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare.”

From 2002 to 2007, only 86 people nationwide were convicted of voter fraud. Comparatively, the Brennan Center estimates that new laws “could make it significantly harder for more than 5 million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.” Is the juice worth the squeeze?

The first step in protecting voting rights is to regain representation, and this is where the “Occupy” movements can look in the mirror.

The American Political Science Association found that the lowest income groups self-report voting at 52 percent, whereas the highest self-report at 86 percent. The rich have disproportionate influence; they also actually vote.

Income inequality is already devastating enough; it shouldn’t be compounded with participation inequality.

I’m sympathetic to the goals of Occupy (insert city here). Democracy is being attacked in America. The front lines of that attack, though, are not on Wall Street. They are in statehouses nationwide.

Defend yourself and your right to vote by actually going out and voting. While you still can.

­— shlumorg@indiana.edu