Democrats' Shocking Voter Legislation

With sequestration occupying the nation's attention, Democrats quietly have advanced a bill that would require all colleges that receive federal funds to actively register students to vote.  The measure would effectively turn universities into voter outreach agencies for the Democrat Party.

The bill, co-sponsored by seven liberal Democrats in the House and Senate, is called the Voter Empowerment Act of 2013.  It was introduced on January 23 and has been assigned to committee.  Chief sponsors include Sen. Kristen Gillibrand of New York and Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.

In a news release, the co-sponsors claim the legislation was designed to "bring our antiquated voter registration system into the 21st century" by taking advantage of "existing technology" to increase "accessibility, accountability and integrity" in the election process.

Those noble sounding words are nothing more than a smokescreen. The legislation is aimed at producing more registered Democrat voters.

Buried in section 1301, the legislation vows to treat "universities as voter registration agencies."  When a student enrolls in a course of study at a college, he or she will be given a voter registration form and urged to complete the information under the prying eyes of liberal university administrators.

This provision is never mentioned in the news releases issued by the seven Democrats.  The media has not bothered to read the actual legislation, so the college registration plan has never been exposed. But that arrangement is not the only egregious scheme in the legislation.

Here are some of the other current voting laws the legislation would change:

• The bill restores voting rights to people with criminal records, previously precluded from voting in federal elections.
• The legislation would allow same-day voter registration for persons who showed up at polling places on election day.
• The act would require states to facilitate online voter registration as a means of frustrating state laws which require a valid photo identification to guard against election fraud.
• The law would require automatic registration of people who may have been registered at one time but no longer are registered.  The state is required to notify the voter of the registration.

According to the bill's authors, their legislation's ultimate goal is to increase voter participation, particularly among minorities.  However, minority voting has already risen to record levels in presidential elections under the current voter laws.  

The non-partisan Pew Research organization has released a study showing that more African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans voted in the 2012 presidential election than at any time in the nation's history.  So what problem is the legislation designed to address?

The inconvenient truth is the legislation doesn't empower voters.  The proposed law gives power to Democrats to manipulate voter registration to their benefit.  It is patently unfair and deserves an early death in committee.