Voter registration made easy
To The Editor:
On a hot and humid Saturday in September, I stood under the Washington Square Arch, wondering if it was going to rain. Above my head floated a large poster cutout of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate for president. Next to me was my friend and fellow Village Independent Democrat Joe Gallagher, waving a Bernie Sanders head. We were waving these faces back and forth and attracting the usual jeers and cheers.
Over the summer, we at the Village Independent Democrats club started a new campaign to register young people in our neighborhoods to vote. We have set up booths at Washington Square Park, Union Square and at local street fairs. We wave signs, and work with people to fill out voter registration forms. We’ve signed up hundreds of new voters.
However, elected officials in New York State have proposed legislation to do this automatically. Automatic voter registration, through the Voter Empowerment Act, has been supported by state Senator Michael Gianaris and Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh. Under this legislation, every eligible citizen would automatically be registered to vote, while only those who opt out would be excluded. This would register more than 2 million new voters in the state. The Voter Empowerment Act would also benefit current voters, plus allow preregistration of 16- and 17-year-olds.
Please sign our petition by going to Change.org and typing in “Support Automatic Voter Registration in New York.”
Erik Coler
Guns on the left and right
To The Editor:
Re “Sanders is changing U.S. politics — but must think bigger” (talking point, by Joe Allen, Nov. 5):
Joe Allen asks, “What are we saying to them about building a bigger, more relevant socialist left today?” It seems to me that Sanders is not saying enough about socialism but instead is saying things like, “Wall St. regulates Congress.” Sometimes he reminds me of Sarah Palin, who has complained about “crony capitalism” and has said that we must support Main St. against Wall St.
Bernie Sanders voted against the Brady Act, explaining that he represents a rural pro-gun state. He is not the only person of the left who has expressed pro-gun ideas. In 1970, Bernardine Dohrn, a member of the radical Weather Underground, gave a speech entitled, “A Declaration of a State of War,” in which she said, “Guns and grass are united in the youth underground.”
Dohrn sounds like retired Representative Jay Dickey, Republican of Arkansas, who said, “We have the right to bear arms because of the threat of government taking over the freedoms that we have” (cited in The New York Times, Jan. 25, 2011).
Is Sanders a socialist or is he a rightist?
George Jochnowitz
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