Politics? Yes. Voting rights battle interesting because of hypocrisy

It is still hard to believe that there is still a hoopla over asking people to show identification -- you can't even buy cold medicine these days without it -- to vote.

Or that the thought that a college student might need to actually go to a polling place that wasn't right outside his or her door is a gross miscarriage of justice.

Or that you have to allow people an inordinate number of days to decide at the last second to vote without registering because there have not been 300-plus days before then when they could have and many places where they could have.

But we digress.

What makes this argument such a waste of time is the unbelievable gall of the people who are now outraged and calling "politics."

Remember when there was a big problem with absentee ballots and the military? How hard it was for service members to cast their ballots?

Were these same people up in arms then? Were there rallies decrying the Democratic administration's attempts to deny service members their right to vote and demanding action?

Nope.

Why not?

Military voters are often conservative or at least lean that way.

It wasn't about voting. It was about creating the best possible scenario for Democratic candidates.

And that is the goal now, too.

This is not a disagreement about requirements at the polling places or voter responsibility.

It is about making sure that a predominantly Democratic voter base can get to the polls -- and as many as possible as easily as possible.

It is about politics.

Nothing else.

Case closed.

Published in Editorials on August 23, 2013 11:00 AM