3 Apr 2022 7:44 am
Margot Cleveland, "There is no such thing, however, as an “unfettered” right to vote. That right is “fettered” by many things, as the Constitution assumed it would be, in providing state legislatures the power to prescribe “the times, places, and manner” of holding federal elections.
While the right to vote is fundamental, the right to vote is not the right to vote in the simplest, easiest way possible, without the need for any effort or exertion. Rather, as the Supreme Court reiterated last year, a voting system must be “equally open,” and provide “equal opportunity to cast a ballot,” but it must tolerate “the usual burdens of voting.”
Registering ahead of time to vote, providing photo identification confirming the person showing up to vote is the person registered to vote, traveling to a precinct, and personally casting a ballot are but the usual burdens of voting—nothing more and nothing less. Yet the misbranded Freedom to Vote Act, if passed, would usurp state election codes that establish such minimal requirements.
Not only is this an affront to federalism, passage of the so-called Freedom to Vote Act would represent the true attack on the legitimacy of elections because it would gut state election code provisions that protect against non-citizens voting, the undue influence of voters, and voter fraud—which is precisely why Democrats want to make the bill law.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/24/yo ... our-couch/