Stacey Abrams claimed to be "standing up for Democracy" when she attacked Georgia for only allowing 17 days of early voting, while at the same time hypocritically praising New Jersey for allowing nine days of early voting.
"Democracy reformers" like Abrams claim elected officials "suppress" democracy if they support Voter ID and oppose weeks of early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, and allowing someone who has not registered to vote to show up on election day and "same-day register" and vote.
Apparently Abrams and other "democracy reformers" are far left of voters even in New York, who this month soundly rejected no-excuse absentee voting AND same-day voter registration.
The liberal reformers put these measures on the ballot due to a complete failure to grasp that voters believe democracy is best protected by making sure their vote is not cancelled by a fraudulent vote cast by someone else.
These liberal activists seem to believe a measure is "pro-democracy" if it advances what they think voters should value rather than the values indicated by how they actually vote. But this belief contradicts even a basic definition of democracy (which would presumably be the source most favored by liberals):
Democracy (Greek: δημοκρατία, dēmokratiā, from dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy") … (Wikipedia).
While most decisions in our country are made in the republican form of government set up by our founders, liberal activists took advantage of the direct democracy approach by putting these measures on the New York ballot.
Activists gave New Yorkers power to replace current election law with what they deemed were "better" rules for democracy: (1) Should mail-in votes be counted when they come from people who have no valid reason not to vote in person? (2) Should votes be counted if cast by people not on any voter list until they show up at the polls on election day?
Even in New York City, a less-than-impressive 61% went along with these liberal democracy reform groups by voting to allow same-day registration and no-excuse absentee early ballots. Interestingly, this support was limited to Queens, Kings, Brooklyn, the Bronx — and outside the city, Tomkins County, home to Cornell University.
Every other county in the state soundly defeated both measures. Overall, notwithstanding the majority support from New York City, only 38% of New Yorkers statewide supported same-day registration, and only 39% supported no-excuse absentee voting.
As a conservative who occasionally agrees with these self-labeled "democracy reform" groups on select issues like Final 5 instant runoffs, I hope these groups will likewise heed the will of the people in New York.
They might realize that when legislators in Georgia, Wisconsin and other states enact voter integrity measures, they are doing so representing constituencies that are far more conservative than the residents of New York — residents who have chosen to allow zero days of early voting by mailing an absentee ballot without a valid reason, and to require that residents register to vote ahead of election day.
To push ahead in opposition to the expressed will of New York voters would be . . . well, undemocratic.
John Pudner is President of Takebackaction.org, a non-profit home for Americans seeking true political reform. Our conservative solutions include: working for voter integrity through steps like Voter ID; stopping illicit foreign money via groups like ActBlue from impacting elections; and supporting innovations like instant runoff/Final 5 voting to take away the opposition’s incentive to fund spoiler libertarian or pro-life candidates, who often allow progressive candidates to win with less than 50 percent of the vote. Read more John Pudner Reports — Here.
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