We Must Counter the Government’s Efforts to Restrict Voting
With the countdown to the election now on, we need to turn our attention to overcoming the efforts that the current government have put in to limit the numbers of people late voting. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at this, as there is a well beaten path of right wing governments around the world seeking to limit voting, especially by people who would most likely not vote for them.
The world leader is, of course, the USA, and it’s disappointing, albeit not surprising, that our Atlas Network dominated politicians are following the same path. It’s almost as though there is a masterplan that is being followed…
You’ve noticed, I’m sure, how incongruous it is that is the parties on the right who, as well as trying to restrict voting, are also the ones who try to limit speech e.g., don’t you dare criticise Israel or use the ‘G’ word, or support Palestine.
So much for the so-called libertarians – “do and say what you like, as long as you meet our definitions of right speech, right actions and right views.”
They also try to convince us, through throwing dust in our eyes, that it is the parties on the left that want to operate police states , when the actuality is that is the right and their fascist brethren that do this.
Back to the elections: the government has worked very hard to ensure that voting will be difficult for last minute voters, through setting the last day of enrolment many days before the election. This is in contrast to the last election when late voters could enrol on the voting day.
It wouldn’t have escaped their notice that the many people who enrolled and voted last minute probably didn’t vote for them, and this is not something they want repeated, hence the efforts to disenfranchise them.
Any claims that this is being done to expedite the counting is, to quote US commentator Ray McGovern, just male bovine excrement. For a start their gerrymandering is likely to see an increase in special votes, which are much slower to count than regular votes.
So this behoves us to do all we can to nobble their nefarious schemes. All of us must do our best to ensure that everyone is enrolled well before the cut-off date.
The seniors group of the Palmerston North Labour Party is developing plans to address this, through setting up stalls around the city where passersby can use an internet connected tablet to go to the Electoral Commission website (vote.nz) to check if they are enrolled (there have been quite a number of cases where people’s enrolment has disappeared for some reason.).
People who aren’t on the roll will be, if they wish, helped to fill in enrolment forms which will then be sent to the Electoral Commission.
The aim is to have everyone enrolled, regardless of who they may vote for.
Democracy works best when everyone votes, otherwise election results are captured by vested interests backed by big money.
As Sean Ackland said on a Facebook post, the billionaires who are funding the right aren’t going to want the same things as grass roots National and ACT voters, and who do you think the National and ACT politicians are going to listen to? Their funders with very deep pockets, or Joe and Jane Bloggs out there in suburbia?
Their election planning depends on electoral sleight of hand to convince Joe and Jane Bloggs that they have their best interests at heart.
It is vital we have a high voting turnout to overcome the government’s best efforts to prevent this.
So what are you going to do to ensure everyone is enrolled and votes?
