What Part of "Illegal" Don't We Get?

Yesterday's Washington Post had an editorial from Catherine Rampell in regard to the voter ID issue, purporting to say that "restrictive voter registration" laws had possibly swayed some elections in Kansas, Virginia and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, she used the term "voter suppression", and she used it repeatedly and incorrectly.  Let me quote from her op-ed: "We know that more than 21,000 people tried to register but failed because they lacked the necessary 'documentary proof of citizenship' required by a new Kansas law [C. Rampell in Washington Post, 11 November 2014]". 

So 21,000 people in the State of Kansas failed in trying to register to vote.  Hurrah!  The law actually worked for its intended purpose, which was to protect the voting franchise of law-abiding Kansans of voting age.  Miss Rampell nowhere makes the case that even one of those rejected people was a legal voter.  Absent a shred of proof that any conscionable number of those rejected actually should have voted, we should default to the likelihood that they were rejected because they weren't legal voters!

I realize that there is a knee-jerk compulsion on the part of the left to oppose anything that presents any barrier to felons, illegal immigrants and Martians from voting for their favorite liar, but we need to shelve the "voter suppression" line in favor of what it really is -- "illegal-voter prevention."

We are doubtlessly familiar with the fact that not having to show an ID to vote is actually unusual in the world.  I would like to see Miss Rampell sit down across from an Iraqi voter from a few years back, who braved hostile threats to have his finger inked.  Having risked his life to cast the precious vote for his country, I'd be delighted to hear what she would tell the Iraqi as to why we Americans shouldn't have to demonstrate who we are in order to cast it.

My vote is no less precious than the Iraqi's, albeit with less threat to my well-being.  It is, however, threatened.  Why?  Because my vote is at risk whenever a person who has not earned the right, by virtue of citizenship, age and lack of a felony, goes unidentified into a polling place and offsets my vote.

I am a Virginian, where we do indeed have a voter ID law, and I presented my Global Entry card (issued by the Federal Government) to identify myself with pride.  You get a little tingle when you go to vote, analogous to the feeling you get on a jury when you are given a case to deliberate on.  It is your participation in our great republic, and it means something.

The stupidest, least-educated, most unbalanced among us have the right to cast a ballot as citizens of a certain age.  All I ask is that if my vote is going to be offset, it will be by one of those who is a legal voter, and not someone participating in the massive vote fraud risk that our current open borders are exacerbating.

Catherine, it is called "illegal voter suppression", and a hint: it is a good thing.

Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton