The vote of the homeless

[Assasin]

RE: The vote of the homeless

you think about our slavery past when because we had no assets, massa didn't want us to vote?

[Assasin]

RE: The vote of the homeless

Let me ask you this. My Grandmother live on a road without street address and there are some nice house but there are some little shacks on it too. What is to decide if the people who live in those 2 piece a zinc or homeless or not?

As long as someone live in a community and can be verified I see no problem with letting them vote. the problem is only when people who do not live in certain area and want to vote there.

Then again when I moved to Mobay I still wanted to vote where I spent most of my life, one year in Mobay didn't justify my vote in Mobay.

[Lazie]

RE: The vote of the homeless

The day you people start trying to think, the better it will be.

[Sickko]

RE: The vote of the homeless

Lazie, stop talking rubbish...you should know how foolish this idea of giving vote to homeless people really is.



Then again maybe you live a foreign too long now or you still following the dictate of the One Don to "oppose oppose oppose"

[Lazie]

RE: The vote of the homeless

Mr. Daley, are these people, homeless people, Jamaicans too? So why you think because you not homeless you are more Jamaican than they are? Looking at the Jamaican constitution it mentioned people residing in Jamaica. The people that are homeless aren't they residing in Jamaica?

"Already, there are too many people who trade their votes for some flimsy partisan political benefits. The country needs less of that, not more."

So because of that we should simply deny them their right? Why yuh nuh say that the komrades and labourites that 'sell them vote to a party fi 30 pieces a silver' be removed from the voters list? Seems unfair to be punishing these people for the action of others.

They may not be asking for the right to vote, as they have other things on their mind, but as Jamaicans it is their constitutional right and if they choose not to vote, it is their choice. I cannot believe people actually trying to justify this.

[Lazie]

published: Tuesday | October 31, 2006 <DIV class=KonaBody>


Vernon Daley

Mike Henry's <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">proposal</SPAN> to give homeless people the opportunity to vote, on the face of it, is a noble idea.

But we shouldn't feel bound to pursue all the noble ideas that pop into our heads, and we especially shouldn't feel compelled to pursue this one. Frankly, it's not worth the time and effort that have already been given to dealing with it.

Parliament, it has been reported, is seeking the advice of the Solicitor-General to determine whether the rights of homeless people are violated by the Electoral Office's registration requirement that a voter should have a verifiable residential address.

I sincerely hope the Solicitor-General's legal research leads him to conclude that there is no such violation. The last thing the country needs is another pool of hapless people which can be used by politicians at election time in return for a 'plate of <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">curry</SPAN> goat.'

Trading their votes

Already, there are too many people who trade their votes for some flimsy partisan political benefits. The country needs less of that, not more.

For years, there have been complaints in some parts of the U.S. that registering homeless people, using shelters and post office boxes, have facilitated fraud in the electoral system by giving undue influence to these transient members of communities.

It's not being suggested that Mr. Henry has an ulterior motive in calling for the franchise for the homeless. But we can't ignore the possibility that this grand idea could easily be transformed into some foul purpose.

Mr. Henry, the Opposition MP for Central Clarendon, was quoted last week as saying that, "Real democracy rests with the fact that if you have nothing, you must retain the right to vote. If you live under a bus shelter, you must have the right to vote. If you live in a canal, you must have the right to vote."

It all sounds good. But going down this line is not a productive use of national <A class=kLink oncontextmenu="return false;" id=KonaLink3 &#111;nmouseover=adlinkMouseOver(event,this,3); style="POSITION: relative; TEXT-DECORATION: underline! important" &#111;nclick=adlinkMouseClick(event,this,3); &#111;nmouseout=adlinkMouseOut(event,this,3); href="http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20061031/cleisure/cleisure3.html#" target=_new><FONT style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative" color