By Dale Glading
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Back when the Constitutional Convention was being held, there was a strong push to make property ownership a prerequisite for voting. The reasoning was twofold. First, property owners were generally more educated than non-property owners and therefore, more likely to cast an informed ballot. Second, our Founding Fathers wanted to ensure that everyone who voted also had some “skin in the game.”
Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said, “When the people find that they can vote themselves money [from the public treasury], that will herald the end of the republic.” Others attribute those sentiments to Alexis de Tocqueville, circa 1838. His supposed version goes like this: “A democracy can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.”
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Other sources credit Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton with that famous quote, but a singular point remains: no matter who said it first, it is still undeniably true. Look no further than our recently conducted presidential election, where one of the biggest takeaways (no pun intended) is that younger voters who support socialism voted for Joe Biden by a wide margin.
Remember when Mitt Romney said the following during his failed 2012 presidential campaign?
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what.”
“And I mean the president starts out with 48, 49 percent … he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So, our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. So, he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean, that’s what they sell every four years. And so, my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
I hate to admit it, because Mitt has disappointed me ever since I cast my ballot for him that November, but he was 100% right. But let me take it a step further by merging Mitt’s words with those of “The First American”, Ben Franklin. Ready? Here goes…
In my opinion, if you don’t pay some type of federal taxes, you shouldn’t be permitted to vote in federal elections… period.
OK, get out the brickbats or whatever else you want to throw in my general direction. I just hope your aim is a little off, because I’m not nearly done yet. Not only do I think that bona fide taxpayers should be the only ones allowed to cast a ballot, but I also think that citizens should be required to pass a basic Civics test before receiving their voter registration cards.
No, that’s not discriminatory nor is it unfair. It is simply a means of ensuring that only Americans with (at least) an elementary understanding of how our constitutional republic works have a say in how it operates.
Instead of handing out voter registration cards like Trick or Treat candy to every person on his or her 18th birthday, how about taking the right to vote a little more seriously? Remember when Iraqis lined up to vote for the first time following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein? They stood in line – not for hours, but for days – and proudly displayed their ink-stained fingers when they were done for all the world to see.
I’m sorry, but if you can’t tell me from what country we gained our independence or what president issued the Emancipation Proclamation, you shouldn’t be permitted within 100 feet of the voting booth. Take a crash course, visit a library, or watch the History Channel – just do something to educate yourself about this great country and those who sacrificed so much to establish, protect, and preserve it – and then come back next election cycle.
And when I say “come back”, I mean in-person. Unless you are a nursing home resident or active duty military serving overseas, get your butt to your assigned polling place. Mail-in ballots are meant for people who physically can’t get there… not for people too lazy to try.
A valid photo ID, address verification, and signature match should be absolutely mandatory for all in-person voting. Likewise, a witness and a signature match should be required for all absentee ballots. And yes, all mail-in ballots should be received and tabulated by Election Day… with no extensions whatsoever except for overseas military. Otherwise, I can virtually guarantee a repeat of the 2020 fiasco where “just enough” mail-in ballots were received to overturn the in-person vote totals.
The bottom line is this: voting is a sacred right and should be treated as such, with every possible safeguard in place to protect the integrity of the electoral process.
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Dale Glading is an ordained minister and former N.J. Republican candidate for Congress.
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