[Newspoetry] Existence, not residence -- the only proper voter qualification

[DL Emerick]

http://www.truthout.org/article/nearly-600000-voters-subject-possible-caging
-ohio
 
You ought not to have to have a home to vote.
You ought not to have to have a home to count,
Not in an election, not in a census.
 
What drives efforts to pen voters in, pin them down -
is a bad practice of district-based representation -
for the people have no representation unless they have a district home -
and if they do not have a home, then they don't count.
 
You'd think, in a democratic-republic,
where you live ought not to matter so much,
but gerrymander is the de facto law,
keeping the poor and the homeless out of power.
 
We could end these district-based discriminations
By going to proportional representations, for instance,
Where residency at a point called home does not matter,
Where residency is a matter of the moment, of existential fact,
Of where you are when the call to come and vote arises,
Of your existence as you choose to be on Election Day.
 
Existence means:
You are your own identification card on election day -
Just as you are your own best living witness,
The only one who can prove who you are,
The only one who should be interested in proof of that fact.
 
Government should have the burden of proof,
To prove that you are dead and thus not able to vote,
Or to prove that you are incompetent to vote,
Or to prove the crime of voting twice in one election,
Beyond a reasonable doubt -
Before its allegation of voter disqualification should be accepted.
 
And if the State alleges that voters need to be tied down,
With IDs and families and homes, the materialism of capitalism,
Then We the People should tell them "Thanks, but no thanks -
I'm not a Slave of the State. the State is my Servant, not my Master."
 
Rise up against Republicans who would deny you the vote,
As they would also deny you all your other rights and liberties.
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