The Maine Point About Voting

I will say this again:  if you recognize no other difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, you need to recognize that the Republicans want as few people to have the right to vote as possible, while the Democrats want as many people to have the right to vote as possible.  Case in point?  GOP voter intimidation in Maine of college students.

The latest voter suppression tactic employed by Republicans can be found in Maine, where last week the Secretary of State sent a threatening letter to hundreds of college students who were legally registered to vote in Maine, floating the possibility of election law violation and encouraging them to re-register elsewhere.


The letter explained that Maine Secretary of State Charles Summers was writing because he “was presented with a list of 206 University of Maine students with out-of-state home addresses and asked to investigate allegations of election law violations.” That list was provided to him not by an uninterested citizen, but rather the Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster, who has accused these students of voter fraud.

In his letter, Summers informed the recipient that “our research shows you have registered to vote as a resident of Maine,” before going on to strongly imply that the students did not meet the state definition for “residence of a person”. Summers went on to encourage the students to re-register in another state, telling them that if “you are no longer claiming to be a Maine resident, I ask that you complete the enclosed form to cancel your voter registration in Maine.” 

Only one problem: that's complete crap.  The Supreme Court clearly spelled out three decades ago that college students have the right to register to vote in the state they go to college in.  These students are within the law and are excited to vote in their first Presidential election.  But the Maine GOP doesn't want them to do so and wants to scare them into not voting.

ThinkProgress spoke with a few of the letter recipients. Casey O’Malley, a senior at University of Maine Farmington, said her family has been worried about potential legal consequences because of this letter. She hasn’t decided whether to cancel her registration or not, but her family has been “pretty insistent” that she do so in order to be on the safe side. Another recipient, who wished to remain anonymous, said that students she knew were “beyond scared and freaked out.” One was “so shaken up” because she was scared the letter meant she was going to get sued.

America, unfortunately, has a long history of this kind of behavior.  The right to vote is arguably the single most important right one has in our representative democracy.  One party continues to consistently work to get into power and then works to limit that right only to select few.  That alone should disturb everyone, no matter what your political views are.

Why should you vote?  Because Republicans don't think you'll miss it when your ability to do so is gone.