I've wanted to see U2 in concert for a long time.
I've seen Garth Brooks, Cher, Alan Jackson, Cheap Trick, B.B. King, Huey Lewis, Jimmy Buffett and The Wiggles, among others. In my mind, a U2 concert would be the ultimate concert experience.
Maybe Billy Joel, too. Elton John? Maybe him, too.
Would it be reasonable for me to expect to just show up at a U2 concert, get a ticket and walk in? No. Most of the time, tickets for the Irish rock band sell out in a matter of minutes, no matter how massive the venue. It takes some planning and commitment to get U2 tickets.
Should that be required for Americans who want to exercise their right to vote?
In Kansas, minority leaders in January pushed for legislation to allow same-day voter registration on Election Day. Ten states and the District of Columbia already practice some form of Election Day voter registration. The Lawrence Journal-World reports current law sets a deadline for voter registration at 21 days before an election.
"We really believe everybody should have access to voting anytime, not just a few days out of the year. As long as they come with ID, why shouldn't they be able to vote?" said Rep. Gail Finney, D-Wichita, who introduced a same-day registration bill in the House.
I remember turning 18 and going to the courthouse where I registered to vote. The experience made me feel like I had fully come into my own as an American citizen. Nobody drove to my house, came into my room and handed me a voter card. I had to go claim it, and it was a proud moment. Call me a dork, but it was a great American moment for me.
It never occurred to me that expecting me to register by a certain deadline was an infringement on my rights as an American.
Advocates for making voter registration easier can sometimes tout the sanctity of every American's right to vote. They should. It's a precious, precious right and responsibility. That's also why it's hard to fathom why someone couldn't be bothered with registering to vote by a reasonable deadline before Election Day.
If one views voting almost as a sacrament of the American experience, why would he expect the registration process to be fashioned like the express self-checkout at a grocery store?
And then there's Bernie Sanders.
Sanders, as part of his presidential campaign platform for racial reconciliation, wants the federal government to put the responsibility for registering to vote on the state rather than the individual. In other words, he wants the federal expectation to be that state and local governments would automatically register everyone for voting once individuals turn 18. Even if the last activity on this earth a person would want to do is vote, Sanders would force the state to register the person as a voter.
And, do you want fries with that?
It's understandable that political operatives would love same-day voter registration because it would give them more opportunity, say, in a district where a party's turnout is low, to go out, gather warm bodies who can be swayed toward a candidate or issue and roll out the red carpet toward the election official registering people.
Think back to those days in school when teachers made an assignment then set a deadline for it to be turned in. Most of the time, in my experiences, if you missed turning in the work, it counted as an F grade. So I worked hard and made sure I submitted the assignment by the deadline. It wasn't always an A, but it was better than an F.
Then there were the couple of times when the teacher saw how many kids didn't complete the assignment and would announce an extension of the deadline, or would announce students would have one more opportunity to turn it in for partial credit. It was a horrible example.
That's what I think about with these objections to a voter registration deadline. Not a single one of our elections sneak up on the public, at least not the ones paying attention. There's plenty of notice and plenty of time to get registered. Nobody's rights are being trampled.
Some folks cry out that people like me just want to suppress the turnout of people who aren't like me. It's the furthest thing from the truth, but it makes for great political rhetoric and makes villains out of people.
Voter ID? OK, maybe that's too much. I don't think so, but I'll listen to that argument. Aggressively purging voter registrations of people who haven't voted in a few years? Yes, I can see how that can be abused. Florida lost a case involving a 2012 voter roll purge when a federal court ruled it was unconstitutional.
But a deadline? That shouldn't be impossible for anyone to deal with.
And speaking of deadlines, mine is here. Column done.
Commentary on 02/15/2016