The Fundamental Right You Don't Have

Did you know that you do not have a constitutionally guaranteed right to vote in this country? It's all about states rights, and states grant you the right to vote, with restrictions applied county by county and state by state. I was suprised that I did not realize this fact. In the following article, from which I have included one excerpt, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Il., makes the facts clear. He also introduced House Joint Resolution 28 which would reverse the Supreme Court's ruling in Bush v. Gore that the citizen has no constitutional right to vote. The congressman says it's time to make voting a citizenship right.

On March 10, 2005, Jesse Jackson noted "The United States stands virtually alone on denying constitutional protection of the right to vote. 108 of the 119 democratic nations in the world have a right to vote in their Constitution—including the Afghan Constitution and the interim Iraqi Constitution. The United States is one of only 11 that do not. As we assist other nations in implementing democracy, we must also turn the mirror on ourselves and examine what we are doing, what rights we are protecting."