How Hard Is It?

The last couple of days, I've read stories in the Des Moines Register about voters-rights groups complaining about voters possibly being disenfranchised because of alleged problems with Iowa voting rules. First, they were complaining about a box on the voter registration form that is to be checked to verify that one is a citizen. How hard is it to do that? Come on, if someone is filling out a form, then he or she really should read it carefully.

Their second problem is with people who show up at the wrong precinct to vote, although in the correct county. They want them to be able to vote using a provisional ballot. I don't see how this can work. Not all ballots in the same county, even in the same city, are not necessarily the same. Sure, for national offices they are the same, but for state and local offices, there may be some difference. The boundaries for state representative districts don't follow county lines. If I were to vote across town, I would be in the wrong representative district, and I therefore would be voting for someone who I didn't have a right to vote for. The voter registration card indicates where one is to vote. How about instead of giving a prospective voter a provisional ballot, the poll workers could give the voter instructions on how to get to his or her correct precinct. Apparently some people are just too dumb to figure out how to vote. Remember Florida in 2000?