Resolution Opposing Automatic Voter Registration, Mailed Ballots, and Compulsory Voting

Unanimously passed by National Committee on 25 April 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Whereas, on March 16, 2015, Oregon began automatically registering to vote all adult citizens who have interacted with their Department of Motor Vehicles;

Whereas, since 1995, the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the Motor Voter Act, has already expanded voting access by allowing citizens to voluntarily register to vote at their local DMVs;

Whereas, statistics show that in the twenty years since the implementation of Motor Voter, election turnout has not improved yet has, instead, actually declined;

Whereas, since 1998, Oregon mails ballots to all registered voters and now all persons with an Oregon drivers’ license or state ID will have ballots mailed to them;

Whereas, U.S. Citizenship is no longer a requirement for obtaining a drivers’ license or state ID, and registrations are being issued without affirmation signature thus jeopardizing election integrity;

Whereas, as already evidenced by perennial problems with absentee voting, using the U.S. Postal System to deliver election ballots presents a serious opportunity for a myriad of election fraud;

Whereas, using the U.S. Postal System to deliver election ballots increases the costs of conducting elections;

Whereas, at a town hall meeting in Cleveland, Ohio on March 18, 2015, Barack Obama discussed the idea of mandatory voting stating that “It would be transformative if everybody voted.” and “The people who tend not to vote are young, they’re lower income, they’re skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups”;

Whereas, in eleven countries which have compulsory voting, penalties are actively enforced upon citizens who do not vote;

Whereas, compulsory voting is coercion which violates the freedom of conscience of the self-governed individual and as such is a clear violation of the Bill of Rights;

Whereas, voting is a right, not a privilege, thus it is the responsibility of individual citizens to register, become informed, and participate in the voting process, efforts which are not proper functions of the State;

Whereas, there are numerous other significant reasons for declining voter turnout such as the lack of candidate choices due to restrictive ballot access laws, debate exclusion, media blackouts, and negative campaign ads;

Resolved, that the Constitution Party opposes automatic voter registration, mailed out ballots, except for requested absentee ballots, and compulsory voting and urges the several States to address the above mentioned election problems instead.