WRECKING THE VOTE

Some things are simple and exact, like a chemical formula or the multiplication tables. Equally simple by logic: Everyone who votes should be eligible to vote, and before receiving a ballot should be able to prove it. Voting-rights activists find dark motives in the elementary desire for clean elections, and are eager to cry voter suppression. With the approach of crucial midterms, Americans have every right to make sure their votes still matter when relaxed rules make eligibility irrelevant. New Hampshire voters became the target of legal lunacy last week when a state judge issued a temporary injunction against enforcement of a new law requiring a person registering to vote within 30 days of an election to show proof of residency. Otherwise the rule would lengthen lines at polling sites and discourage students and the disabled from signing up. It didn’t seem to matter that prospective voters who showed up to vote without the proper documentation would still have 10 days to mail it in. “Where the law threatens to disenfranchise an individual’s right to vote, the only viable remedy is to enjoin its enforcement,” wrote Presiding Superior Justice Kenneth C. Brown. Who knew the minor inconvenience of handing over a utility bill containing a home address would flummox the descendants of New Hampshire patriots who vowed to “Live free or die”? Showing identification with a photograph on it is a requirement for a lot of things Americans perform routinely without a second thought, let alone with a cry of despair. The Washington Times