75-05-B5
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Easy Voting[edit]
Transcript[edit]How easy should it be to become a registered voter? I'll be right back. In recent years and without our paying much attention it's become easier and easier to become a registered voter and whether we know it or not we've been making it easier and easier for voting blocs to swing elections even though the bloc doesn't represent a majority. The proponents of easier registration would have us believe that non-voters are panting to vote but they find registering to do so impossibly complex and difficult. Is it true that our low voter turnout is due to the bother of registering? If it is, how come in some elections where the issues of the candidates have excited the citizenry the voters don't seem to have much trouble registering and voting in overwhelming numbers. On the other hand only 38 percent turned out in the '74 election and the majority of the 62 percent who stayed home gave every reason but registration difficulty as the reason for their defection. If you don't mind a California example, let me give you an idea of what happens when you make it too easy. In California there have been court decisions plus the wording of the state elections code which have created something called "transient voting." Technically it's legal. Morally it's on a par with ballot box stuffing. Very simply, a voter is eligible simply by declaring his intention to live in a certain place. Now wouldn't you know that Berkeley has been the scene of what seems to be an experiment in mobile voting blocks. Some of the election results have been pretty upsetting to the more permanent citizenry of that community. In one election two thousand more votes were cast in Berkeley than the total number of adult citizens living in the city. In 1972 30 people voted from one address a single family dwelling and 59 were registered to do so. In 1973 six people voted from that address even though the house had burned down four months before the election. People with fixed abodes in six other California cities and two in Pennsylvania voted in Berkeley's election. All it took was a statement thirty days in advance that they intended to live in Berkeley. One man former mayor Wallace Johnson has led the drive that exposed hundreds of irregularities of the kind I've mentioned. He's working to get changes in the state election code to remedy the situation. Meanwhile the California legislature leans toward making things worse not better and Congress is talking of postcard registration for national elections. Look at the potential for cheating, a John Doe can be registered in three or more counties. There is no cross checking between counties. He can be John Doe in Berkeley and J.F. Doe in the next county all by saying he intends to live in both places. How is it in your state? And does your Congressman want postcard registration? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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