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The EditorsSeptember 17, 2014
(CNS photo/Rafael Crisostomo, El Pregonero)

Voting on Trial

It is not yet November, but voting in this year’s midterm elections is well underway. In North Carolina, Alaska and Georgia, election officials have already sent out “no excuse” absentee ballots. And thanks to a recent federal court ruling that blocked early voting restrictions in the Buckeye State, Ohioans can begin voting in person on Sept. 30. 

Ohio, an important, vote-rich swing state, expanded early voting in 2008 after long lines kept people waiting at polling sites for over five hours in 2004. But earlier this year the Republican-controlled General Assembly eliminated the first six days of early voting—the “Golden Week,” during which African-American churches often run registration and voting drives—and the secretary of state reduced weekend and evening voting hours. In a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Ohio branch of the N.A.A.C.P. and the Ohio League of Women Voters, Judge Peter C. Economus ruled that the measures violated the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act by eliminating voting periods favored by African-Americans.

It is important to make voting more accessible to members of minorities and low-income citizens who may have trouble taking off time to vote during working hours. It is a sad commentary on the state of U.S. politics when something as fundamental to the democratic process as casting a vote is made a partisan issue. Over the past three decades early voting has been expanded in the name of voter convenience with little controversy. Today, in Ohio and other states where similar issues are being fought over in the courts, legislators need to reach across the aisle to establish early voting regulations, encourage maximum participation and restore confidence in the election process.

Belaboring Child Labor

Toxic working conditions, no living wage, 12-hour workdays—a sweatshop circa 1900? In fact, it is the economic reality of 2014, not just for adults, but for children, and not just in the developing world, but right here in the United States.

A recent report about a 13-year-old girl working in North Carolina tobacco fields—under conditions even an adult should not endure—is shocking. More shocking is that it is perfectly legal for her to do so. Today young immigrants and children of migrants often perform jobs no one else will do in order to help their families survive in difficult economic times. In 2011 the Obama administration sought to ban work in tobacco fields for those under 16, but was thwarted by Republican lawmakers and farm groups. Though some tobacco companies restrict the use of child labor, their growers, contractors and workers find ways to get around labor and safety regulations.

The United States is not the only country where child labor is an issue. One in 10 Syrian refugee children in Turkey have to work to support their families. And while a U.N. convention sets 14 as the minimum age for work, in July Bolivia became the first nation to pass a law permitting 10-year-olds to work.

The global economy is becoming increasingly complex, but one thing is clear: parents should make a living wage, so their children will not have to work for a minimum one. Children should not be exploited as economic tools for someone else’s profit.

Protecting Human Dignity

At the end of August, the California Legislature unanimously approved a bill that its crafters hope will set a precedent for combatting sexual assault on campus.As summarized by The San Jose Mercury News (8/28), Senate Bill 967—nicknamed the “Yes Means Yes” bill—”would require all colleges taking student financial aid funding from the state to agree that in investigations of campus sexual assaults, silence or lack of resistance does not imply a green light for sex, and that drunkenness is not an acceptable defense.” It also calls for outreach programs to help victims with counseling, legal advice and other services. Bill 967 currently awaits a signature from Gov. Jerry Brown.

While many have praised this proactive approach, others have criticized the bill’s convoluted rhetoric and see it as overly invasive. An editorial in The Los Angeles Times describes the bill as “intrusive” and merely a way to “micromanage sex so closely as to tell young people what steps they must take in the privacy of their own dorm rooms.”

Prevention of sexual assaults must begin long before students arrive on campus. In “Talk About Steubenville” (4/8/13), America’s editors wrote that rape prevention starts when parents talk to their children about sex, especially to young boys about “the sort of behavior expected of them in protecting the human dignity of the people they will encounter later in life.” Middle schools and high schools can reinforce these sensitive private discussions with programs that teach young people how to prevent and report sexual assault and discourage behaviors, like blaming the victim, that add to the crisis. By having these difficult but necessary conversations, parents and schools can equip students to fight the scourge of rape on campus.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Leonard Villa
10 years 2 months ago
In your editorial you lament that voting has been made a partisan issue but you don't consider who has made it a partisan issue? You cite only Republicans and you fail to address voter fraud, the dead voting, or intimidation by the "race baiters" in order that the "right" votes be cast aka for liberal Democrats any which way you can. For example voter i.d. should be a "no brainer," and yet it is opposed by the "usual suspects." The idea the poor and minorities can't do things on their own or take responsibilty is a form of condescendence and racism: they always need the help of the enlightened. It's like we never had poor and immigrants in our country who made it their business to vote at the times established by law or are incapable of meeting requirements. Even early voting can get ridiculous. If election date is November 4 let's say, an additional date named early voting is purely arbitrary: October, September, July etc. how early? What's the point of an election day? How about a rolling election day? Where's the protection against fraud? Now that you mention the Republicans will there be any mention of Democrats and voter fraud? Remember ACORN?? Yours is rather a myopic of view of voting and voting rights.
David Knoble
10 years 2 months ago
It's disappointing that no consideration is given to Ohio's expenses in voting. The "nasty" republicans wanted to reduce the early voting from 35 days to 28 days. Why isn't 4 weeks of early voting sufficient, and why is it discriminatory? If it truly is discriminating (as opposed to changing a habit), then the factual elements of the discrimination should be noted. Virtually all of your readers are against any discrimination, not only because of the clear social justice, but even for self preservation. ("If parliament can take away Mr. Hancock's wharf and Mr. Rowe's wharf, they can take away your barn and my house." -- John Adam's letter to Benjamin Rush.) The false claims of discrimination in our present PC society have by now reduced the credibility in any true discrimination. This result can only be changed by rigorously discussing the true discrimination. Frankly, having only 4 weeks of early voting doesn't seem discriminatory in any manner to me, but I am open to the factual discussion of how it is discriminating. Regrettably, this editorial failed to do that.
ed gleason
10 years 2 months ago
As a long time voting inspector in a large city I can assure the conservative paranoids that voter fraud is a legend. Not an urban legend but an upper-class suburban legend... It's an after golf round drinking topic.
Bobby Warren
10 years 2 months ago
I guess Jesus was just being an elitist and condescending to the "least of these."
Robert O'Connell
10 years 2 months ago
My great grandfather cast his first vote ever for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Until he died 70 years later, he voted for Republicans only. He died in Chicago and has been a Democrat ever since.

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