The Freedom Not to Vote

The city of Boston is trying to encourage more voting:

The city of Boston plans an all-out drive to allow voter registration on Election Day, and will launch aggressive voter drives among new Bostonians and high school students in an effort to boost turnout in the minority and non-English-speaking communities, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said last week.

Same-day registration, which would require approval from the Legislature, was among the major reforms recommended in a task force report that was commissioned by the mayor and made available to The Boston Globe.

I do not think this is an appropriate function of government.  Freedom means the freedom not to vote.  Government attempts to encourage voting are inevitably attempts to increase power for incumbent politicans.

Comments

Almost all they do is making registration easier. Since voting is a right, why is there even registration necessary? In most European countries you don't have to register to vote. Your phone, power, cable, bank and other companies know where you live why can't government do the same?
Making registration cumbersome increases the price of voting, which unsurprisingly deters poor people.

[Mike Huben]

Simplifying voter registration increases freedom: formerly unregistered voters now would have another option. Now they'd be free to engage in the political process by voting.

This is one of the most bizarre libertarian arguments I've seen in a while.

[Chris]

Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose...

The point is that this incumbent, can look good while spending "public funds" as a means of political assurance.

In theory, the lower the marginal cost of political transaction, the greater potential involvement and awareness. However, the optimal price is not zero and it is a questionable expenditure of public funds to influence these real costs.

What makes this interesting is that individuals should be free to make up there minds and be involved in varying levels of political awareness (or ignorance) and it is questionable that public funds be used to 'distort' that decision process while serving to aid an incumbent, all in the convenient guise of helping the poor and minority groups.

[Alan Brown]

Making it easier for you to vote is meaningless if you can't vote for a representative that will actually represent your views in the legislature.

Proportional representation is the reform we need. It will decrease the rewards for the criminal element in Washington and make real opposition to bad policy possible. And there are one or two bad policies that need it.

[t_do]

...And same-day registration restricts people's right not to vote how, exactly? It's not like the government is coercively forcing people to vote.