Viewpoint: Protecting our right to vote
Jane Kapler Smith
President Trump wants the federal government to manage our elections. It’s none of his business. Our Constitution assigns the management of elections to the individual states and Congress: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”
The fact that the President has no legal role in our elections has not stopped him from establishing a new Office of Election Integrity to “oversee” them. This office now demands complete voter registration data from the states—data that could be shared with private contractors. Our Secretary of State has complied, even though our personal information is protected by the Montana Constitution and nineteen states have sued to prevent this violation of states’ rights.
The President claims he needs to manage our elections because non-citizen voting is rampant. It isn’t: Several studies have failed to find more than a handful of non-citizens who have voted. The Trump-aligned Heritage Foundation studied 20 years of U.S. election data and found only 24 instances of non-citizens voting, an average of one per year! Our Secretary of State Jacobsen is rightly proud of finding 23 possible instances of non-citizens voting in Montana (out of nearly 800,000 voters); we haven’t heard yet if they actually voted.
While the President is trying to solve the non-problem of non-citizens voting, he is creating a new problem: making it harder—and possibly less safe—for citizens to vote.
Remember “No taxation without representation,” a rallying cry for the American Revolution? Since we all pay taxes, I figure that every adult citizen should have the right to vote and we should make it as easy as possible to do so.
It’s hard to push back against the Trump administration’s behemoth, but let’s do it. Our elections this year will be on May 5 (School District), June 2 (federal primary), and November 3 (general election). If you’d like to help run the elections, sign up here: https://www.missoulacounty.gov/departments/elections/get-involved/
Then get ready to vote. The Secretary of State’s website (https://sosmt.gov/elections/) provides good
information: First, use the website to make sure you’re registered. If you’re not, start that process on the same webpage.
Encourage family and friends to check too.
Second, learn who the candidates are and start following news outlets to learn about their characters and policies. I try to put as much work into this effort as I would to find a new doctor or buy a new car. One of my personal criteria this year is to see if a candidate supports legislation that would complicate citizens’ ability to vote; if they do, they won’t get my support.
Third, learn about Citizen Initiatives (“Ballot Issues”). As of today, ten have been proposed. They cover a variety of issues—from controlling increases in property taxes to protecting dogs from abuse to keeping judicial elections nonpartisan. If you want an issue on the ballot, watch for it to be approved for signature gathering and then sign the petition. I’m looking forward to signing the one that would eliminate corporate donations to our election campaigns. Fourth, vote. Encourage family and friends to vote too.
Ever since the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted, 156 years ago this month, most federal actions regarding elections have increased citizens’ access to the ballot box. Let’s not let this be the year when the Administration “protects” the ballot box from the voters themselves—that is, from us.
Jane Kapler Smith
Missoula citizen and voter