It’s fair to say that never has an ambitious
government program been passed without an eye to buying votes or
even—what the hell—buying voters outright. From a politicians’
perspective, what’s the point of expending time and effort on
legislation if it’s not going to win a little ballot box love? So
it’s little surprise that a couple in La Mesa, California, not only
received a voter registration packet from Covered California, the state’s
health insurance exchange charged with implementing Obamacare in
California, but that the form was helpfully pre-marked for the
Democratic Party.
From
ABC10 News:
A local couple called 10News concerned after they received an
envelope from the state’s Obamacare website, Covered California.
Inside was a letter discussing voter registration and a
registration card pre-marked with an “x” in the box next to
Democratic Party.The couple–who did not want their identity revealed–received the
letter and voter registration card from their health insurance
provider Covered California, the state-run agency that implements
President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.They have lived in La Mesa for years and they have always been
registered to vote Republican. Now, they are perplexed as to how
the voter registration card pre-marked Democrat ended up in their
mailbox.
Why is Covered California sending out voter registration forms
to nearly four million enrollees? Well, it has a big database, and
voter rights groups threatened legal action unless that database
was put to good use.
It’s not a terrible stretch to assume that a health program
closely associated with a Democratic president and his political
party might attract more potential donkey voters than fans of the
competition, but pre-marking the registration card with that choice
is a tad presumptuous. Even so, Covered California claims
astonishment, and refers inquiries to the Secretary of State’s
office. The San Diego County Registrar of Voters sends people with
questions to Covered California.
It’s a mystery!
Assuming the worst (and not an unfortunate error on some
low-level somebody’s part), this is small potatoes compared to how
voting used to be handled. Writing for The New Yorker a
few years ago, Jill Lepore
told the tale of a somewhat vigorous election day in 1859:
On the morning of November 2, 1859—Election Day—George Kyle, a
merchant with the Baltimore firm of Dinsmore & Kyle, left his
house with a bundle of ballots tucked under his arm. Kyle was a
Democrat. As he neared the polls in the city’s Fifteenth Ward,
which was heavily dominated by the American Party, a ruffian tried
to snatch his ballots. Kyle dodged and wheeled, and heard a cry:
his brother, just behind him, had been struck. Next, someone
clobbered Kyle, who drew a knife, but didn’t have a chance to use
it. “I felt a pistol put to my head,” he said. Grazed by a bullet,
he fell. When he rose, he drew his own pistol, hidden in his
pocket. He spied his brother lying in the street. Someone else
fired a shot, hitting Kyle in the arm. A man carrying a musket
rushed at him. Another threw a brick, knocking him off his feet.
George Kyle picked himself up and ran. He never did cast his vote.
Nor did his brother, who died of his wounds. The Democratic
candidate for Congress, William Harrison, lost to the American
Party’s Henry Winter Davis. Three months later, when the House of
Representatives convened hearings into the election, whose result
Harrison contested, Davis’s victory was upheld on the ground that
any “man of ordinary courage” could have made his way to the
polls.
Political factions have always tried to put as much pressure on
the voting process as possible and, in the process, render the
whole thing as bogus as can be imagined (assuming that you think 50
percent plus one has some special significance to begin with).
Compared to a bloody gauntlet, pre-marked voter registration cards
are mild stuff.
But we can use an occasional reminder that politicians expect a
return for their efforts, and they’re willing to put a thumb on the
scale to get it.
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