Is voting in this country a right or a privilege? I would say that it is both. We should never deny anyone who is eligible to vote the right to vote. But it is also a privilege, and that is why I am concerned with voter laws being proposed and sometimes being enacted around the country.

One major push is for what is called “automatic registration.” We saw the beginning of this decades ago with the National Voter Registration Act, often called the Motor Voter Law. If you have been to your state department of motor vehicles to renew your license, you know what I am talking about. You are given the opportunity to register to vote while you renewing your license.

This option has made is possible for many people to register to vote who may never actually vote in any election. Voter fraud is much easier. All someone has to do is find people on the voter rolls that are registered but never or rarely vote in elections. Then you can go into the polls and pretend to be that person. Or you can request an absentee ballot and send it in pretending to be that person.

Now some state legislatures have legislation pending that calls for “universal registration.” If enacted, this would require that anyone who gets a license or renews a license would automatically be registered to vote. It is bad enough that we make it much too easy to register to vote. Imagine what would happen if someone did not even have to take a moment to fill out a voter registration card, if instead they were automatically registered to vote.

And let’s not forget that earlier this year President Obama talked about “mandatory voting.” Some countries have mandatory voting, and he would like to see something like that in the United States.

Voting is both a right and a privilege. But I’m not ready to give that privilege to someone who won’t even take a few minutes to fill out a voter registration card. And I am concerned that these proposals will make voter fraud even easier.