We now have the first concrete evidence of the kind of legislation that Jimmy Carter will push for, if he is elected President. He put his personal influence on the line in asking the House of Representatives to pass a bill to provide for postcard registration of voters for Federal elections.
Like most of Carter’s ideas, the postcard registration bill would, of course, cost more Federal tax dollars. Estimates range up to $500 million every two years. Of course, it would require a new Federal agency. Of course, we would have to hire more Federal employees. Of course, it would mean more Federal control over state and local activities.
The postcard registration bill supported by Jimmy Carter would have ordered the U.S. Postal Service to mail registration forms to every postal address in the United States at least once every two years. The voters would then return the postcards by 30 days before the election. The actual cost would have been disguised because the U.S. Postal Service would mail all 140 million registration forms with the Federal franking privilege. The volume and frequency of this mailing would have provided a convenient excuse to raise the cost of first-class postage another couple of cents.
Fortunately, the House rejected Carter’s personal appeal for this mass-mailing boondoggle. The House then paseed a less obnoxious version which requires merely that voter postcards be made available at post offices and other Federal buildings. This is a bad plan, too, because it would permit pressure groups to gather up the postcards and use them for intensive registration drives to serve their special interests.
The postcard registration bill is based on two false assumptions. The first is that the Federal Government can and must solve all social problems immediately, even the sociological phenomenon that up to 34 million Americans do not want to vote.
The second false assumption is that it is a social good to drag everyone out to vote in every election, even though the individual may be too uninterested or indolent to vote on his own initiative. There is something inherently offensive about the idea that Federal persuaders should propel everyone to vote, whether he wants to or not. Uninterested, uninformed, or lazy citizens should not be reluctantly dragged to the polls by the Government and counted equally with the votes of conscientious Americans.
A recent survey of the reactions of county clerks, who under our system of government have the responsibility for voter registration, produced this type of comment about postcard registration. “It allows too many opportunities for fraud.” “It would drastically reduce the efficiency of our electron process.” “I could register under the name of five or ten people if I wanted to.” “Under that bill, I could vote in several states.” “Why doesn’t the Federal Government keep its fingers out of local business?”
That there is no demand from the public for postcard registration was demonstrated earlier this year by a petite and beautiful South Carolina legislator. In January the powers that be in South Carolina decided to put through a state postcard registration bill and it appeared headed for prompt passage with little debate.
Representative Norma Russel decided to filibuster in order to bring it to public attention. She spoke continuously for three and a half days, eight to nine hours a day, thereby setting the record for filibuster by women in state legislatures.
During that time, she rallied so much opposition to the postcard registration bill that it was buried under an avalanche of phone calls and telegrams from voters.
