There have been many complaints from Democrats that the Republican party has been attempting to use the levers of government to make it more difficult to register new voters and to suppress Democratic turnout at the polls. Whether fair or not, this press release will be perceived to be part of that campaign. I think that issuing the press release was an extremely unwise move, especially if Michael Astrue has any ambition to continue serving as Social Security Commissioner if Banack Obama is elected President.Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, on Friday contacted the Secretaries of State for Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio and asked them, based on extraordinarily high levels of requests to SSA, to review their procedures to ensure that they are fully complying with applicable federal laws relating to the registration of voters. Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, most States are required to verify the last four digits of the Social Security number of only those new people seeking to register to vote who do not possess a valid State driver’s license.
“It is absolutely essential that people entitled to register to vote are allowed to do so,” Commissioner Astrue stated. “While there may well be legitimate explanations for the high levels of requests, I am confident that the States we have contacted will review their procedures promptly to ensure that they are in full compliance with federal law.”
Update: A number of people are telling me that I am misreading this press release, that Social Security's only intent is to help voter registration personnel who may be unnecessarily verifying Social Security numbers. Yes, one can read this press release in that way and that is probably what was intended, but someone who really wanted to help voter registration officials might not have sent out a press release at all and certainly would not have sent out a press release which basically says "Why are you registering so many new voters? Are you doing something illegal?" Voter registration laws are not Social Security's area of expertise. Telling people whose area of expertise is voter registration that they do not know their jobs is arrogant. This is especially obnoxious when it is combined with a strong insinuation of illegal behavior. I think anyone reading the press release would have to think that whoever wrote it was dismayed by all the voter registration going on. This press release happened when Michael Astrue was confronted by criticism in a politically charged environment. Very few people were even aware of the criticism, but Astrue went ballistic in a press release. Now think what happens when Astrue is forced to work with a President, a Congress, a Deputy Commissioner and an Inspector General who are all members of the Democratic party. That is what happens if Barack Obama is elected and Astrue elects to serve out his term as Commissioner. Michael Astrue's personality is not suited to working with others who disagree with him and who distrust him. Throughtout his career he has been quick to acuse others of impropriety when they disagreed with him.
I think you're reading this backwards. It appears to be saying that some states are being overly aggressive in their verification procedures by checking SSN4s of people who should be verified with state DMV data only, as federal law requires.
ReplyDeleteIn effect, the release is saying that states shouldn't be using SSA mismatches as an excuse to purge voter rolls when DMV data is more reliable.
I agree with the above comments. Voter registration is a State right in which the Federal government has become overly intrusive. Social Security numbers should not be a factor. There are other ways for States to identify citizens.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Charles, I think you've overreacted. Astrue is telling the states they need to follow the law and not place additional restrictions on citizens registering.
ReplyDelete"This is especially obnoxious when it is combined with a strong insinuation of illegal behavior."
ReplyDeleteWhich is kind of like most of your blog posts. You've misread something, and instead of owning up to that, you continue to cast stones at the COSS. The COSS has to worry about how SSA runs, and this is affecting how SSA runs. It interferes with SSA's daily operations. Given the problems SSA has right now, why aren't you behind this?