The Democratic bill to advance voting rights is facing grim prospects in the Senate. Unless the Democrats can bribe or twist the arms of two recalcitrant Democratic Senators, it appears to be doomed.
I realize that proposals for compromise are, in general, doomed to condemnation by both sides these days, but I’d nevertheless like to offer two additions to the bill that might make it palatable to Republicans.
The first addition would be the creation of a federal commission for the investigation of voting fraud. This would be a liberally-funded permanent federal agency responsible for investigating the integrity of all federal elections. It would be given broad powers to investigate, including the power to randomly choose ballots to audit. We could boost Republican support for this measure by making vote fraud a capital crime. Nothing warms Republican hearts more than the death penalty.
Of course, we already know that this will be nothing but an exercise in political theater. The agency will loudly announce its many detailed investigations and provide lots of gory details — well, maybe not gory, but laden with enough details to keep Republicans occupied. We could make sure that we have plenty of well-publicized perp walks.
The idea is simple: rather than prevent the crime (while simultaneously preventing a lot of legal voting), we increase the investigation of the crime after the fact. Don’t block ‘em up front, catch ‘em at the back.
It might work.
If it doesn’t, the second addition would be the creation of a national ID system that doesn’t rely on voluntary action on the part of citizens. In other words, the government goes out and finds citizens the same way that it does with the census.
Yes, lots of left-wingers will scream bloody murder at the prospect — but that’s a selling point to Republicans. “Look, Republicans! We’ll deliberately hurt ourselves if you’ll go along with our voting rights bill!” They’ll eat it up.
Besides, the objections to a national ID have been made obsolete by recent developments. You can’t have Medicare For All if you don’t have ID For All. You can’t distribute stimulus payments to people whom you don’t know exist. We can use biometrics to make the ID system secure. India has a national ID system that reaches most of its population, and it cost them about $1 per citizen. Yes, their labor costs were much less than ours would be, but even at $100 per citizen, we’re still talking about something like $30 billion. In the digital age, the hatch-potch system America relies on is just plain dumb.
So instead of butting heads with Republicans over voting rights, why not offer them a few inducements?