Sunday, November 6, 2011

Vote, vote while you can

In Utah there is a law requiring you to present I.D., like a drivers license or a concealed weapon permit, before you can vote. Identification costs money. Identification requires you to have transportation to the government offices that can issue your identification. In the past, two hundred years ago, only property owners could vote. In the near future it looks as though in Utah only owners of automobiles will have the vote.

In Utah I’ve heard that there is a new law allowing towns to cancel elections if there are no opposing candidates on the ballot. This sounds good. It saves money. But what happens when one person, and only one person decides to run against an opponent? Now they have to justify the cost of  the entire election simply because they wanted to live within their rights. It sounds like euthanasia for democracy. If your election is weak is it really best to just let it die?

When you add those laws to the recent secret meetings on redistricting Utah (our right wing leaders insist that they aren’t secret meetings, its just that they are the only people who can attend), their attempts to block access to communication by office holders, and some people’s concerns that democracy is equal to socialism, it appears we are well down the road to losing our voice.

If we don’t vote out the far right soon we may find that it is no longer an option for us.