August 10, 2008 9:32 am

Registering to Vote

Friends of ours had a barbeque in honor of their young daughter’s birthday last night. I always have a good time at their things, and last night I heard an unusual and entertaining story of olden times in Middlebury.

OK, not so olden times. The year was 1969, and the place – the teller recalled – was Middlebury Town Hall. The story goes they administered a reading test to her brother, who was registering as a Democrat.

Feather adds some context here-

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed things like literacy tests. As I recall, he was asked to read a few lines of text.

There is an interesting history to the voting age being lowered. In a nutshell: it was first a law passed by Congress as an amendment to the Voting Rights Act in 1970. It was challenged, and the Supreme Court overturned the law in part – it applied to Federal not State elections. Next up – the Constitutional Amendment:

AMENDMENT XXVI
Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971.

Note: Amendment 14, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 1 of the 26th amendment.

Section 1.
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

I wonder if anyone else will recall something like this, especially since it was illegal in 1969? But I did a bit of research and in 1855 Connecticut was the first State to adopt a literacy test for voters (via State Constitutional Amendment). Old habits die hard?

Do any of you long-time Connecticut residents have recollection of this sort of thing?

And, should Democrats in Middlebury still be required to complete reading tests in order to be registered to vote today? Just kidding.

Retired Yes

Yes, I registered in 1968 in Norwich Town Hall at 21 summer before my senior year in college. I was nervous to go alone to the town hall and get this done.

I still remember being handed a large tome where he pointed to an area in the middle of a page and said. “Read here.”
I worried, what if I messed up in my nervousness.
Whew, was I happy when he removed it after a couple of smooth sentences. I passed.

I recall wondering if everyone could read that text successfully. (And I wish I remembered what book it was. Now I�d check the reading level�)
Then telling myself, democracy requires a literate population. Of course, that is how information was passed ‘in those days’, newspapers and books.

I sometimes muse that although we have various alternative information gathering don’t we still need to be able to go back to original sources after someone interprets it to us on TV, on the web? Shouldn�t people actually be able to read to decide on questions on the ballot? Well, if town elected officials could actually form ballot questions that are understandable, the legal reading would be lessened.

Hmmm, then I wondered if I was still registered when I moved out of town and registered to vote in my new town in 1980. �Oh we send a card to Norwich to take you off their list,� I was told. Now as a deputy registrar I see that it does work if you move within Connecticut, not so much outta state.

It must take a while to enforce new laws at the local level. Not so long as it used to be, but with all the information overload, and volunteers for enforcers, better late than never I suppose.

Ah well- rambling over and you would never believe the branches and tangents I cut� at least I got the vote for Goldwater in 1968. He had a plan and he shared it.
old timer

I registered in Norwalk before this act was passed and had to read a short piece of text from a book, out loud. I never gave much thought to that requirement then, but I realize now it kept a lot of people out of the process. Some were kept out because they could not read, many more were kept out because they were intimidated by the requirement. Nobody wants to look foolish, stumbling over unfamiliar words.
Anonymous

IMHO, they ought to bring back those literacy tests, and add a few other kinds of tests as well. Plus, citizenship cards ought to be shown at the time of registration. Far too many illegal aliens manage to get insurance, driver’s licenses and auto registrations; what makes anyone think they aren’t out there attempting to register to vote so they can skew the local elections to benefit them?
Chris MC

#3 Are there issues or candidates at the local level who might fit that description?
Retired Yes

Danbury or New Haven attitudes formed at home…
also if you are not literate- someone could more easily direct your vote through guile.
Chris MC

I don’t know Retired Yes – what about someone who is blind, maybe not today, but on the other hand, is the Norwalk Hour or yourct.com available in braille?

But about the last paragraph in your first comment – are you still a Goldwater Republican? Where do you place yourself in the political spectrum these days? Bush supporter? McCain?
Retired Yes

The radio has a set up that reads to the blind -newspapers everyday. Also word processing reads documents and web pages. voting is now set up with special required equipment to assist blind or legally blind voters in every voting precinct.
We cannot say no reading requirement because there are blind people. The matter is moot these past 25+ years.

I am not pleased with McCain, but can not vote for Obama- what qualifications? I say.
Would have rather seen Mitt Romney as my candidate or Fred Thompson.

I support George Bush in many areas. History will be kinder to him that we may think at this point.
Having a conviction is more important than polling for a position.

I also believe that the president, whoever that is, has more information than the man on the street to make decisions- at least I hope so!