A conservative nonprofit, Indianapolis-based ‘Public Interest Legal Foundation’ filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court last Thursday, alleging that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold denied the organization’s request for voter records, thus violating transparency regulations under the National Voter Registration Act.
PILF wanted data on “voters who have died” who have remained on the rolls. In their suit, the foundation cited three examples, going back to 2005, of Coloradans voting on behalf of dead people. In two instances it cites, a person voted on behalf of their dead mother.
Since dead voters can’t typically speak in their own defense, it’s left up to perceptive journalists (like myself) to plead their case. Which I intend to do this morning, to the best of my ability.
Apparently, Ms. Griswold provided the foundation with a spreadsheet from ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, that contained the records the department uses to maintain a list of deceased voters… but some sensitive data was redacted.
PILF was left unsatisfied, and itching for a fight, and if I know anything about lawyers, the whole thing is going to cost somebody a lot of money.
The elephant in the room has been ignored, however, by both PILF and the Secretary of State.
Should a person be prohibited from voting, just because they are dead?
I’ve spend many hours studying the U.S. Constitution, and I cannot find it written anywhere that a person loses their voting rights when they pass on.
Here, for example, is the full text of the 26th Amendment:
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
“Shall not be denied… on account of age.” That language seems pretty clear to me. You don’t stop getting older just because you kicked the bucket. You simply age in a different manner.
Unfortunately, our political parties are constantly trying to find clever ways to prevent a person from voting, when they suspect that the person will vote for the opposite party. Why a conservative group like PILF thinks a dead person would vote Democratic, I have no idea. Seems to me, a dead person is much more likely to be a Republican.
But that’s entirely irrelevant to the central argument. “Does a person lose their voting rights, just because they accidentally died?”
Sadly, our Colorado Secretary of State, Democrat Jena Griswold, and the conservative ‘Public Interest Legal Foundation’ are now locked in a heated political battle — but both agree with the same mistaken notion: that dead people should not be allowed to vote.
I doubt they will read this Daily Post article — my defense of the defenseless — but I hope some of the deceased voters who have been robbed of their constitutional rights will find solace in the fact that at least one brave journalist was willing to stand up for them.
The political foundation of the United States, from the very beginning, has been built upon fairness. One person, one vote. Is it a crime to vote for your own mother, if she’s having trouble filling out her ballot, for whatever reason? I think not.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.