This so-called For the People Act must be rejected by Sens. Hassan and Shaheen. This is a politically biased bill that favors the ability of Democrats to control the federal government. It is a total destruction of our U.S. Constitution that gives the states the power to legislate rules for voting.
Some politicians try to justify voting for S.1 by saying it prohibits voter suppression. This voter suppression argument is not true. The issue is about voter integrity, which S.1 weakens. The founders of our nation looked at all of the different forms of government in history and had one driving goal. That is, to make sure that America would never again be controlled by a central government with absolute power over states.
S.1 takes away the right of legislating voting rules by states. This is exactly the danger our founders wanted to protect us from so America will never again be controlled by a tyrannical government. It is amazing to see that politicians like Hassan and Shaheen take the oath of office to “defend and protect our Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic” and then support legislation like S.1 that tears our U.S. Constitution to shreds.
It is despicable to think our elected officials would betray that oath of office because that is what Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer dictate. Schumer and Pelosi do not represent the voters of New Hampshire.
Two African American corporate executives, Ken Frazier and Ken Chenault, were recently interviewed on CNBC asking corporations to voice disapproval of the Georgia voting rights legislation. The reason why states are exercising the rights to legislate voting rules is because S.1 is so biased in favor of partisan politics. It takes away the rights of state legislatures to fulfill their constitutional duties.
Mr. Chenault, former CEO of American Express, would never allow you to get an American Express card without showing proper ID. Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines listened to the call of Frazier and Chenault and denounced the Georgia voting law. Try getting on one of his planes without showing proper ID. It would never happen.
Are not voting rights, the most precious asset a free society has, entitled to the same protection against fraud as getting a credit card? Instead of opposing states’ rights, corporations should be funding programs that make sure all qualified voters have a valid ID card if they do not have a driver’s license.
Then there is Major League Baseball. In protest of the Georgia law, they moved the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver because of the call of the two African American executives. That action by MLB has hurt the livelihoods of the very people these CEOs thought they were trying to protect. 49% of Atlanta’s citizens are African Americans. Denver has less than 15% of its citizens people of color (POC).
The All-Star Game creates good-paying jobs for food vendors, suppliers of drinks and other resources needed to support the All-Star game. So, by encouraging large companies to supposedly hurt Georgia because of their voting rights law, they are actually hurting the livelihood of the African Americans they thought they were trying to protect. African American leaders have got to stop treating POC as victims. They are not.
Prior to this pandemic, POC and Latinos had the lowest unemployment rate in the 50 years that the statistics have been calculated. African Americans and Latinos are victors in the American economy, not victims. Then Will Smith decided to move his movie production company to Louisiana in protest of the Georgia law. Again, Smith is hurting the employment opportunities of African Americans. The sad part of this is that Louisiana has stricter voting rights laws than Georgia has.
New York state and the president’s home state of Delaware also have more stringent voting rights laws than the Georgia legislation. Why do these corporate executives not call on corporations to boycott Delaware and New York? New Hampshire is blessed to have Secretary Gardner administering our voting rules.
I was a poll challenger in the last election. The rules for voting were clear and fair. A voter had at least one month prior to election day to cast an absentee ballot if they had health concerns. That was plenty of time to cast a vote even if you had a job during this time.
All absentee ballots had to be delivered to the proper polling place by 5 p.m. on election day to be counted. If you wanted to vote in person and you were in line by 7 p.m. on election day, you could vote no matter how long that line was.
I helped a friend cast her ballot by absentee because of health concerns. She had plenty of time to get her ballot in and the absentee process called for two signatures in two separate envelopes to cast a vote.
In my capacity as a poll challenger, I encountered three cases where the person was voting in the wrong polling place. We sent those people to their proper place. There were four people who were not registered to vote, and with proper identification, those people were directed to a same-day registration desk.
The system that Secretary Gardner had in place was fair and it protected voter integrity. There was no voter suppression here. I believe New Hampshire had its largest voter turnout to vote, more than any other election.
Concerning having out-of-state college students being eligible to vote here, if a student has a NH driver’s license, they should be able to vote here. Out-of-state college students have had more experience with the politics in their home state so they should vote there. That is the purpose of the absentee ballot. No voter suppression here. Just vote in-state where you know the politics better.
(Joseph Mendola live in Warner.)