My View: Let’s have national vote by mail

– U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Fifty-one years ago, President Johnson urged Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. And in the face of implacable opposition from Southern states, Johnson clearly laid out the stakes: “Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote”…

[Sadly,] Americans are facing new barriers to exercising their fundamental right to vote.

Across the country, there are stories of long lines, inexplicable purges of voter rolls and new requirements that make it harder

for citizens to vote. There is no excuse for accepting this state of affairs…

Thankfully, there is a solution.

…In Oregon, every voter receives a ballot two or three weeks before an election date…

So my proposition is the rest of our country should follow Oregon’s lead and offer all voters a chance to vote by mail….

…My view is voting rights are simply too important to abandon the field to special interests who would manipulate our government…(emphasis ours)

We Respond & Your Comments

Gosh, Ron, we are truly touched by your selfless, patriotic desire to stop “special interests who would manipulate our government.”

But we do have a few questions:

• Do Metlife, New York Life Insurance and Citigroup count as “Special Interests?”
• How about Prudential Financial and Massachusetts Mutual Life?
• According to the Center for Responsive Politics they, via their PACs, employees & immediate families, tossed a cool $194,700 your way.

Just two more questions, Ron – Do you think your being Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee had anything to do with their generosity? Did they have a little government manipulation on their minds when they signed those checks?

Just wondering.

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