CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
In some very exciting news out of Canberra this week, it seems the Morrison government are hoping ban any citizens from voting unless they can present a specific form of identification.
The bill, which passed the Coalition party room on Tuesday but is yet to be introduced to parliament, looks a lot like the American past time of voter suppression.
According to several Coalition MPs and senators, the bill aims to tackle invalid votes without disenfranchising eligible voters – which is what the American conservatives also say when they somehow managed to exclude tens of millions of immigrants and low-socio-economic voters from the democratic process.
Ever wondered why Georgia, a state with one of the largest African-American populations in the state, always seems to have a redneck governor getting elected? It’s because of the amount of people that are unable to vote, due to voter suppression! In some counties, mostly black ones, you can only vote on a work day, during school holidays, at ballot box on the other side of town… With a specific type of ID.
However, this can’t possibly be what our government is working towards with this exciting new plan to making voting more difficult for disadvantaged people?
Scotty From Marketing says this bill is aimed at cracking down on alleged voter fraud, which is an interesting concern to have in a country that struggles to enrol eligible voters in the first place – despite it being compulsory.
According to the AEC date at the 2019 election, 1.5 million people on the roll failed to vote at the election. In some seats, less than three-quarters of those entitled to vote cast a legitimate ballot.
But that’s not the issue here, the government is talking about VOTER FRAUD. An issue that has literally never ever been highlighted by this government until it started looking like they had lost their working class voter base.
If voters are unable to present a certain ID on polling day, another enrolled voter with ID can attest to their identity, or they can spend an afternoon verifying their identity with an overwhelmed electoral staff member, which would be quite difficult to do if you couldn’t speak English that well. Or they could go for the fourth option, which is to just go home and not bother.
