Kansas public official suggests that students and other “slow learners” shouldn’t vote

[kpete]

State agency spokeswoman calls League of Women Voters ‘left-wing’ agitators

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De Rocha’s dismissal of students voting looks especially bad in Kansas, a state that has perhaps gone farther out of its way than any other state to make it difficult for people who aren’t rich, old and white to vote in recent years.

It’s precisely because Kansas has gone to such great lengths to make voting more difficult that voter education courses like the one the League of Women Voters is promoting here have become necessary. As the Eagle pointed out, more than 40 percent of people on the state’s “suspended voters list” — a list of people who are eligible to vote but did not submit proof of citizenship when they registered — are under the age of thirty. Many live on or near college campuses. As Kansas is one of just two states in the country that keeps separate voter rolls — one list for voters eligible to vote in all elections, and one for voters who are only eligible to vote in federal elections — the average citizen probably does need to sit down and have the process explained to them if they want to understand it fully. What’s more, the particulars of Kansas’s voting laws and how they differ from the rest of the country’s are not included in the state’s social studies curriculum or civics classes, so an optional college course seems to be the least the state could do to educate its citizens about how to participate in their own self-governance.

Of course, this flies in the face of what we generally think the principles of a democratic society should require. Voting is supposed to be easy precisely because we place only the most basic restrictions on eligibility. Being ruled mentally incapacitated by a judge is a valid reason to prevent someone from casting a ballot; failing to read up on the particulars of Kris Kobach’s latest regulation concerning voter registration procedures is not.

That is, as long as you think that the process really should be open to everyone.



MORE:
http://americablog.com/2015/10/kansas-public-official-slow-learners-shouldnt-vote.htmlhttp://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/prairie-politics/article41544393.html

[Myrina]

1. That wipes out the GOP voting base ....

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I Was Thinking She Should Be Careful What She Wishes For

For the reason you stated

[Octafish]

3. ''A gaggle of left-wing hags.''

As opposed to a mob of right-wing fascists.



Were Corporate McPravda led by people with integrity, the truth would be known to all.

[TheMastersNemesis]

4. That Statement Leaves Out Most Of Kansas For Sure. Put Brownback In Twice