Is One Man-One Vote Becoming a Distant Memory?

One of the most sacred rights and responsibilities of American citizenship is voting. We are supposedly guaranteed that every person's vote is worth as much as every other person's vote. That guarantee has never been perfect, Blacks weren't allowed to vote until the 15th amendment in 1870, and women until 1920's 19th Amendment, but the tradition of the United States has been to aspire toward honest elections.

This past election America took a major step backwards, ACORN, perpetuated voter fraud in at least 14 states to the point where some districts had MORE than 100% of registered voters casting ballots. Ultimately this probably had little effect on the national results. But the fact that it was wide-spread enough to cause concern was enough to erode confidence in the system

This week the Department of Justice made two politically motivated decisions that further eroded the value of each of our votes, one in Georgia the other in Philadelphia (see videos below):

A System Eroding

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, June 03, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Voter Fraud: The Justice Department has told Georgia that the state cannot impose its proof-of-citizenship requirements at the ballot box. The corrupting of American elections continues.

The order came only days before it was reported that Justice had decided in the middle of May it would drop a complaint against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

The men, who reportedly uttered racial slurs while dressed in paramilitary clothing, had been accused of intimidating voters on Election Day last year at a Philadelphia precinct.

The Washington Times says that "political appointees" at Justice "overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint." Federal authorities had charged King Samir Shabazz, who carried a nightstick at the voting precinct, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson of violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

That same Justice Department told Georgia last week that it cannot check Social Security numbers and driver's license data to confirm U.S. citizenship of prospective voters. The department reasoned that the state's system was often inaccurate and has a "discriminatory effect."

But what could be more inaccurate than having no system at all to confirm that the people voting in American elections are truly Americans? We have to agree with Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, who said that "politics took priority over common sense and good public policy."

As far as we can tell, there is no organized effort anywhere to stop genuine citizens from voting — unless the three men in Philadelphia whose actions have been officially condoned at the federal level can be considered an organized effort.

Yet it appears that Justice wants to make sure noncitizens have the same access to the American ballot box as citizens, and either doesn't care where that leads or is part of an attempt to make transformational changes to the U.S. system of government.

That same federal department, by dropping the case against members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, has also clearly indicated that groups willing to resort to violence, both real and implied, to hijack elections are free to harass Americans on their way to the voting booth.

No election system is flawless, but our method for placing officials in office is the cleanest the world has known. We have peaceful revolutions at regular intervals, and voters are confident that, despite its imperfections, the process delivers the best possible outcomes. Either by intent or accident, the Justice Department is undermining our faith in this unique system.