To the Editor:
Your excellent editorial “The Right to Vote” (Aug. 9) doesn’t mention one key point that helps explain problems in protecting our right to vote: the Constitution does not guarantee suffrage rights.
At our nation’s founding, there was no consensus on suffrage, with decisions about voting given to the states, which often punted it to localities. Today, more than 12,000 jurisdictions make independent decisions affecting administration of presidential elections, often with insufficient financing.
Some nine million Americans who cannot vote for president and Congress (mostly because of felony convictions and living in territories) could do so if living elsewhere in the country. More than a quarter of eligible voters are not registered to vote, while millions are registered more than once.
Just as free speech is fundamental to democracy, so is a right to vote. It’s time for more attention to H.J.R. 28, legislation to establish a constitutional right to vote for American adults.
Rob Richie
Executive Director, FairVote
Takoma Park, Md., Aug. 12, 2008
Your excellent editorial “The Right to Vote” (Aug. 9) doesn’t mention one key point that helps explain problems in protecting our right to vote: the Constitution does not guarantee suffrage rights.
At our nation’s founding, there was no consensus on suffrage, with decisions about voting given to the states, which often punted it to localities. Today, more than 12,000 jurisdictions make independent decisions affecting administration of presidential elections, often with insufficient financing.
Some nine million Americans who cannot vote for president and Congress (mostly because of felony convictions and living in territories) could do so if living elsewhere in the country. More than a quarter of eligible voters are not registered to vote, while millions are registered more than once.
Just as free speech is fundamental to democracy, so is a right to vote. It’s time for more attention to H.J.R. 28, legislation to establish a constitutional right to vote for American adults.
Rob Richie
Executive Director, FairVote
Takoma Park, Md., Aug. 12, 2008
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.