The Obama Justice Department has quietly launched an effort to erode traditional state powers over elections.
In the first instance, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has drafted and sent a bill to Congress which would force state election officials to turn over power to tribal governments to determine the location and number of polling places on Indian reservations in state-run elections. In the second instance, the DOJ is seeking to erode the power of states to prohibit the mentally incompetent from voting, as long as they express a desire to vote to their caregiver, often a unionized government worker. In both instances, the Justice Department is acting at the behest of activist groups and undermining powers the Constitution gives to the states.
Given the election results of the last twenty years, it might be surprising to learn that the California constitution says that “no idiot or insane” person shall be entitled to vote. Understand that ‘idiot’ is a legal term used to denote someone who is literally incompetent or incoherent. Other states use the term ‘imbecile’ or the more modern, ‘incompetent.”
While the terms may be anachronisms, the reasons behind the prohibition on voting are as valid today as they were in 1849. Allowing someone who is not competent or aware to vote corrupts elections and invites the patient to be victimized by someone effectively stealing that patient’s vote.
