| Again, the question has to be, "If Ruth Johnson is so concerned with the integrity of elections, why isn't she pressing the Legislature to make it illegal to pay someone t take a dive in one?" The News is the latest to editorialize against her citizenship question, which was asked without the backing of legal authority. The several instances in which people were denied ballots during the Aug. 7 primary election should serve as fair warning. Among them was Michigan Campaign Finance Network Executive Director Rich Robinson, who refused to respond to the question, subsequently complained to the Bureau of Elections and was allowed to come back and vote later in the day.
In other words, there were people legally entitled to vote but who were denied ballots because of this requirement. That's on top of the confusion created by changing enforcement of the rules in the middle of the day. By the way, you already have to attest to your citizenship when you register to vote, which makes the question not just one that deprives people their Constitutional right to vote, but also superfluous (and, by the way, what idiot would work up the nerve to fraudulently vote only to get tripped up by a simple question about citizenship?). |
