Voting is a Right

In the article titled "Federal Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin Law Requiring Photo ID as Polls," Davey and Yaccino discuss the 2011 law that was struck down earlier this year. The judge ruled that this law violated the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act because proportionally, there are more black Wisconsin citizens living below the poverty line than white citizens. Those who live below the poverty line have more trouble finding transportation to obtain photo IDs, and they are less likely to use these photo IDs for things like banking and international travel. Critics also point out that this might have proportionally prevented more Democrats from voting than Republicans. However, advocates say that this law helped prevent fraud and increased confidence in the voting system.

This decision shows that the judicial system is using the 14th Amendment to protect the basic rights of people. However, a Supreme Court decision on a law in Indiana upheld a similar law in 2008. It will be interesting to see if this law gets appealed to the Supreme Court.

Until fraud becomes a major issue, I think that restrictions like these should not be allowed because everyone has the natural right to vote. However, if voting fraud begins to increase, a measure may need to be found that helps prevent fraud at very little inconvenience to the voting population.

Republicare

In the article titled, "What a Republican Senate Means for Obamacare-And What it Doesn't," by Sam Baker, the new Republican Senate majority is discussed.  Republicans are now in 51 of the Senate seats, and many of them got there on a campaign promise to work toward the repealing of Obamacare. It is unlikely that the Senate would reach the 60 needed votes to completely get rid of Obamacare, but only 51 votes will be needed to make certain changes to the plan.

This Republican Senate majority will most likely lead to some changes, but the GOP will still need to show American citizens that they are doing more than just fighting Obamacare if they want to have strong results in the next election. It will be interesting to see any changes that are made to Obamacare.

I think it may be a good thing to have a Republican Senate to offer a different point of view. I do not know enough about Obamacare to know what changes would be best for the country. Now that I have voted for the first time, I am more interested in the effects an opposing Legislative and Executive branch will have on this country.

Link: http://www.nationaljournal.com/health-care/what-a-republican-senate-means-for-obamacare-and-what-it-doesn-t-20141105