Privacy Bills in the House, a First Look: Jonathan Singer is Monkeying Around with Voter Rolls

by Eileen | 8:22 am, January 29, 2013 | Comments Off

WHAT: HB 13-1135, Allowing voter pre-registration at 16

WHO: Rep. Jonathan Singer (D-11) and four others

WHY: Personally, I think controlled substances had something to do with introducing this one

A law professors, a social worker, a consultant, and a legislator walk into a bar.  In that bar, they apparently got blind-drunk and came up with HB 1135.

Now, HB 1135 is Jonathan Singer’s bill; he’s the social workers of the group, hailing from Boulder, that bastion of nonsense, evil intentions masquerading as nonsense, stupidity, and stupidity veiled with sugary concern for others.  (You know, now that I think about it, a taxonomy of reasons bad bills get introduced is an article begging to be written.)

I have tried to think up a decent reason why anyone needs a bill allowing 16 year olds to pre-register two election cycles ahead of time, and I haven’t turned up anything, yet.

What the bill specifically seeks to to legalize pre-registering any, “person who has reached 16 years of age but who will not reach 18 years of age by the date of the next election.”

Translated into the vernacular used by normal humans, if Bambi is 16 now and still won’t have turned 18 by the 2014 elections, she can register now for eligibility to vote in 2016, with the understanding that her pre-registration will automatically become a live registration once she turns 18.

As far I see, there are two reasons to do this: voter fraud or surveillance. Think about it, you either get kids onto the voter rolls years before they ordinarily would register, adding them to lots more databases and monitoring them from an even earlier age, or you inflate the voter rolls with people who are not legally eligible to vote.  And I’m sure there won’t be a single mix-up where Bambi the teen queen accidentally casts a ballot.

Knowing the Colorado Democratic Party, voter fraud is the primary reason.  Gathering yet more data is a lovely afterthought.  I also would not be the least bit surprised that someone is angling for federal money, seeking to artificially pump up voters rolls to make it look like people are engaging, or seeking a reason to inflict political scum and their bureaucrats on kids.

Encouraging 18 year olds to register is a laudable aim. So too is making sure the 16 and 17 year old set knows how to register.  Pre-registering kids is just sad.

HB 1135′s only sponsors are in the House, and are all Democrats.  As befits this mess, it’s been sent to Veteran’s Affairs.  Let us hope it dies a merciful and quick death.  Let’s also hope Rep. Singer writes his next round of bills with a sober, clear head.

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