Last week we participated in a voter registration drive sponsored by the Mental Health Association of Tulsa, at one or their residence facilities. Although the group I accompanied was representing the Democratic Party, this was a non-partisan affair as folks from the Republican Party had a registration table there, also.
We all followed the instructions meticulously and promptly filed the completed voter registration forms with the County Election Board.
The day after we went to this event to register voters, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4844, to amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require any individual who desires to register or even re-register to vote in an election for Federal office to provide the appropriate State election official with proof that the individual is a citizen of the United States.
When this law goes into effect, no group will be able to register voters because the applicant must show proof of citizenship to an "appropriate State election official." Secondly, there are hundreds of thousands of citizens who may not be able to show proof of citizenship when they go to change an address, name, or party affiliation. For instance, how about an elderly person who goes into a retirement home, needs to change their address, and doesn't have a copy of her birth certificate handy? How many of the elderly poor does this effect? Or how about a high school drop-out who's a member of a minority racial group? Do they have the knowledge of how to go about getting a copy of their birth certificate? Worse yet, what about the court house records destroyed in natural disasters, from Hurricane Andrew in south Florida in the early nineties to the infamous Hurricane Katrina?
This nefarious bill is aimed straight at the Hispanics who are in the USA illegally and this legislation is a cover-up for the Congress's shameful lack of oversight of the agencies responsible for guarding our borders. This law will dis-enfranchise more honest citizens than it will ever deter those without citizenship.
Rep. John Sullivan of Oklahoma's First Congressional District voted to enact this draconian restriction of voter rights, which is another attempt to curb our freedoms.