This Baltimore Sun Op Ed responds to Maryland’s catastrophic violation of Federal law, in particular, motor voter Section 7.  The op ed prescribes a draconian solution to a problem with an obvious alternative remedy.  It states:

“Fortunately, the Maryland voter registration problem can be solved easily and in a way that saves money for state and local government: Make voter registration automatic. Build it into the routine of each bureaucracy, so that the information for every qualified customer of the MVA or a public assistance or disability services office automatically goes on the list of citizens eligible to vote.”

News flash – not everyone wants to be registered to vote, and that’s a good thing.  One of the benefits of living in a free country is that citizens are free to check out, tune out and disengage from politics if that floats their boat.  Given how many opportunities people have to register to vote, by mail, at the DMV, at any number of government offices, if someone says no often enough, no means no.  There are actually people in this country who refuse to vote on principle.  Though I suspect there might not be much overlap between the “getting welfare faction” and the “refuse to vote faction,” the freedom to stay unengaged is as important as the freedom to get engaged.

Plus, don’t let on to the “beneficiaries” about all the direct mail that will choke your mailbox once you register to vote.  Or the phone calls.  Or the push polls.  The knocks on the door when you are trying to watch a college football game.  The literature cluttering your porch when you have an armful of groceries.  Like most things, freedom is the solution to this problem, as long as Maryland follows federal Motor Voter law.

Of course since mandatory automatic registration of welfare recipients is such a bad idea, Maryland will probably pass it through their legislature by next Tuesday as they tend to do with other bad ideas.