Adventures in Suffrage

Being good citizens, Pepper and I registered to vote in Arkansas at the same time we got our new drivers' licenses last summer.

A month or so ago we received Address Confirmation Cards from the Orleans Parish Voter Registrar that had been forwarded from our old address at Moogie's Mansion in New Orleans.

We also received Address Confirmation Cards for Elder Daughter and Younger Daughter, using their maiden names. Daughters haven't lived in Louisiana since 2004, but Younger Daughter has been summoned to Jury Duty several times since she moved. Each time she has contacted the Registrar (as well as the summoning court) to tell them that she doesn't live and vote in New Orleans anymore so she won't be showing up for Jury Duty any time soon, thank you very much.

Anyway, Pepper and I decided to help out Registrar Sandra Wilson, PH.D., (her credentials, as noted on the form, in capital letters) by returning the Confirmation Cards, noting our new address, and writing in large letters, "Moved to Arkansas." In block letters, not even cursive. We assumed she would remove us from the Voter Registration Roster, posthaste.

Nope.

Today, all four of us received another Address Confirmation Card from Ms. Wilson, Ph.D, requesting that we verify our address. The address we were asked to confirm inside the mailing was the old Moogie's Mansion address. The address on the outside of the mailing was our current address in Arkansas at the Manor.

*sigh*

In her epistle, Ms. Wilson, Ph.D., notes that, if we fail to return the card by December 10, 2016, we "may be removed from the voter registration list." MAY be removed. In 2016. After the next presidential election.

Theoretically, Moogie could vote for the next President both in Arkansas and Louisiana. Louisiana requires voters to show a government-issued photo ID before one may cast a ballot. (Arkansas' voter ID law has recently been declared unconstitutional and is under appeal at present.) Even though we now have Arkansas drivers' licenses, this requirement would not pose an impediment to voting in Louisiana for Moogie and Pepper as we both have retired military IDs bearing our smiling faces and no address.

Of course, we all know that Moogie and Pepper are beyond ethical, so we would never do something like that. I can't say that would hold true for every other "displaced" Louisiana voter, however. (There are special instructions for "involuntarily displaced" voters.)

I'd say that Ms. Wilson, Ph.D, might want to do a little training for her data entry folks.

*sigh*