With the peculiar circumstances surrounding the population of New Orleans (and, taking into account that there is occasionally election fraud perpetrated during registration of new voters), the Louisiana city has decided that newly, absentee-registered voters need to come to NOLA to vote in person. The NAACP views this as, effectively, a poll tax, saying not everybody can afford to come all the way back to the city right now, and therefore, their voice is silenced.
Hmmm. I'm thinking if they can't come back for elections, they might consider making themselves semi-permanent residents of whatever community in which they've been dumped, and get on with their lives -- especially if this voting thing is new to them. When they are ready and able to return to the city, they ought to be able to re-register, as a newly arrived resident in a newly-built city.
This viewpoint may sound callous, but then, I've moved around the country enough that I've had to re-register more than a few times. It gives me a chance to get to know the city hall of the new town, and it always makes me take my new neighbors into consideration in a way which didn't happen in the days when I hung on to my old city ties.
Then again, from what I've been hearing from some of my TX friends, the newer neighbors aren't terribly impressed with the thoughts and actions (inactions, as well) of the NOLA evacuees, and may not want them voting on their local issues. Maybe they'd help pay for a few charter buses on election day, if the NAACP offered to assist them in setting it up?
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