Ok, it's just media law, but we have the same Constitution printed in our book. And according to that, Amendment 24 to be exact, "The right of citizens to of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President...shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any toll or other tax."
Apparently, this only applies if you're voting in person. I just voted absentee in the Ohio primary, and this is what happened. First I paid $.41 to send in the application. Then, I paid another $.97 to send in my completed ballot. That's $1.38, friends. And I'll do it again in November, raising the total to $2.76. I realize this is not a lot, but it's the principle of the thing. As I live 9 hours away from home and want to stay a registered Ohio voter, I would have been denied the right to vote for failure to pay the postage toll, or, if I went the other way, the roughly $120 in gas money to go home and back.
It was my first primary vote as well as my first absentee vote. I love to vote and I love living in a state where the outcome really impacts the election. I feel like I should be able get reimbursed or something, even though I know this will never happen and I understand why. It just doesn't feel right. If you're going to let people vote absentee, they should get the same protection that in-person voters have from poll taxes, no matter what form they take.
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