Real Suppression of Votes

Every since we started the discussion of a photo ID bill, the Democrats have been screaming about the suppression of votes by the Republicans.  Claiming Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature are trying to control the election process by disenfranchising a voting block that is unable to meet the requirements of the new law.   Yet time after time, their own actions this last year have been to suppress the votes of the people of Wisconsin.

 RUNAWAY SENATORS

In February of 2011, Act 10 came before the Wisconsin Legislature.  This was the bill that removed the 60 year collective bargaining privileges from public workers.  Before the Republicans could bring the bill to the floor of the Senate for discussion, fourteen Democratic Senators left the state.  Without the proper quorum of Senators in the capital, the vote could not be acted on.

Scott Walker and the other Republicans elected in 2010 ran on the notion that they would bring reform in the area of collective bargaining in order to reign in public employee benefits; benefits that were crippling the fiscal stability of the state.  Walker won the election with 52% of the vote.  This was the same percentage the Doyle had in 2006 and 7% higher then Doyle had in 2002.

While hiding out in Illinois, the Democratic Senators continued to speak as though they were working for the people of Wisconsin.  Yet, during the eight year governorship of Jim Doyle, the Republicans never left the state.  Even as Doyle and the Democratically controlled legislature did things to the state budget that were unconstitutional.  They stayed because they had respect for our form of government.  The Republicans voted on legislative bills and accepted that the people voted to give ultimate control to the Democrats, knowing full well they were working for the people.

The fourteen Senators that left the state did not have respect for our form of government.  In fact, the act of shutting down the government in response to a bill legally brought to the Senate floor by the majority party was voter suppression.  They decided for the 52% that voted for Walker that our votes did not matter.  Fourteen people in a state of almost 6 million decided to throw out the entire election process and suppress the votes of the 1.1 million who voted for Walker.

 PHOTO ID

In a society where we value the freedom of voting anonymously, voter fraud is hard to prove.  That does not mean it doesn’t happen.  A quick search on the Journal/Sentinel website will reveal a couple stories of voter fraud in the last election.  Even as recent as the last week, we are getting reports that Senator Lena Taylor had 36 people registered to her home address.

 Since voter fraud might be small, is that reason enough to forgo any type of safety measures in protecting our election process?  Are we to assume that crime takes place in every other aspect of our lives, but not voting?  That is foolishness.  Voter ID laws are tools to be used to provide confidence in our voting system.

 Why then do the Democrats oppose such safe guards to our republic?  Is it that they are in favor of or benefit from voter fraud?  That is a topic for another time, but it does raise some questions as to what their motive is.  The explanation given by opponents of the voter ID bill is that the requirement to have a proper ID is a responsibility that some people in our society cannot handle.   Democrats claim these people are completely incapable of either getting the photo ID or getting the information required to get a photo ID.  When confronted, the Democrats cannot produce a single instance in the other thirteen states that have photo ID laws where a persons vote has actually been suppressed do to inability to get an ID.

 Comparatively, they show no concern for the vote suppression that is caused by voter fraud.  When a fraudulent vote is cast, that vote will cancel out one legitimate vote; therefore, suppressing the vote of a legal voter.  Hence, by rejecting the real claims of voter fraud while trying to establish a hypothetical narrative of non-existent voter suppression, they are in fact suppressing real votes themselves.

 RECALLS

 Recalls are a much needed aspect of our government.  It keeps pressure on elected officials as a notice they are our servants.  Yet, it can also be used as a tool that can harm our government.  Recalls need to be reserved for truly unconstitutional behavior in office or criminal behavior with regards to state affairs.  When you go beyond this and start using the recall as a mulligan for the election process, the recall action and the government itself suffers.

 The current recall of Scott Walker is nothing more then a mulligan.  According to public employees the voting population of Wisconsin was too stupid to vote correctly.  Therefore, Democrats want a do over.  This do over is nothing more then the personal hatred that the public employees and Democrats have against Republicans. 

 The explanations as to why to recall the governor run the gambit.  Yet none of them revolve around Scott Walker actually harming the state.  This recall action revolves around money and power.  Walker took away both from the public employees and unions and they are not happy.

 An election mulligan is voter suppression.  The Democrats in an effort to undo the 2010 election want to suppress the votes of 52% of Wisconsin voters.  They want to erase your vote and my vote.  The difference between this and voter fraud is they found a legal way to do it.

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 As we have seen, the real voter suppression lies in the hands of the Democrats.  While the Republicans are trying to suppress the vote of the illegal voter, we see time after time how the Democrats actively try to suppress the vote of the legal voter.  It is on the citizens of Wisconsin to correct this and drive out the rotten seeds of the Democratic party.