Neighborhood Ministries

The members of the House of Representatives are reapportioned after each Census to ensure that each Representative represents approximately an equal number of voters.  Since illegal immigrants cannot vote legally, it was felt they should not be included in the Census. Liberals claim that the Founding Fathers wanted everyone counted, not just voters and refer to the 1787 Compromise where they allowed slaves to be counted as three fifths for the Census. The Continental Congress was debating the apportionment of taxes for each State which was determined by population. The Northern States wanted the slaves counted as part of the population so the Southern States would pay their fair share but the Southern States didn’t want them counted in order to reduce their taxes. They finally reached a compromise where the slaves would be counted as three fifths of a person. Indians were excluded from the count until 1860 when those living off the reservations were counted and in 1900, they began counting Indians on the reservations. The Census was also used to determine seats in the House of Representatives and the electoral college The Census counted every resident except foreign nationals visiting or temporarily working in the United States.  The 14th Amendment conferred citizenship on all residents born in the United States or naturalized and nothing in the Constitution precludes counting non-citizens in the Census. Apportionments for the House of Representatives is based on the total resident population of the fifty States.  The total number of representatives has been set at 441. 435 from the 50 States and one from the District of Columbia and each of the five US territories. Liberals claim the illegal immigrants should be counted because they are losing population as residents flee the State and are replacing them with illegal immigrants who will vote for Democrats I return for being allowed to stay. Conservatives feel that it unfairly gives Congressional seats to liberal States and deprives legal voters of representation since the immigrants are not here legally. It was designed to give equal representation to all but it is not equal representation if two districts have the same population but one has very few voters because most are illegal and can’t vote legally.

AB-AI Many States are already gearing up for the primary elections. Many people skip the primaries or vote casually without a lot of concern for who wins. They think one is as good as the other. That is generally true for Democrats who are pressured to vote for things the party supports and against what it opposes, because they are supported by big money interests such as Planned Parenthood who dictate how they vote, regardless of the feelings of their constituents. That is not as true for Republicans who rely on party members for support and are more influenced by community values. Yet the primaries dictate who will be on the ballot in November. If you don’t agree with who you elect in the primaries, you don’t get to pick a second choice in November. We are seeing an increasing number of people who say they don’t agree with either candidate in November. It takes work to locate what candidates stand for but it is much better than suffering through the results of legislation pushed through that supports causes you don’t believe in. You won’t agree with everything a politician supports but you should at least agree with their major values, You have an obligation to let him know how you feel on an issue when you disagree with his stand. If he hears from enough constituents, he may change his vote. You can’t go on what they say, you have to look at their record of how they voted in the past. They can say anything they want while campaigning but the bills they vote for tell what they support and that is in the public record. A candidate may say they oppose abortion but if they vote for funding for abortion, you know they support it. If he gets in and doesn’t vote the way you wanted, you have an obligation to vote him out and replace him with someone better. Too many voters don’t pay attention to how their representative votes. They go on reelecting him  and he goes on padding his pockets because he knows he can still get reelected. The problems in Minnesota, California, New York and many other States, as well as many major cities didn’t pop up overnight, they have been going on for years. However, residents of those States have continued to reelect the same corrupt politicians because they either aren’t paying attention, don’t care, or the election process in their State is so corrupted that the party in power overrules them.

In the 2024 election, Harris only won nineteen States. Twelve do not require photo ID’s, Five require ID’s but don’t require it be a photo ID. Two of the States do all voting by mail and there is no way in a mail-in vote to verify who is sending the ballot. While they check the signature against the voter registration, the voter registration could be fake if no ID was required to register or the signature could be forged and with as many signatures as they have to check, it is hard to do the careful examination needed to detect a forgery. That means she did not win in any States which require photo ID’s. She only lost in two States that don’t require ID’s. One has to wonder  if she could have won any States if all States required voter ID’s. It is possible she could have won those States without any fraud involved, but the fact that she only won in States that don’t require photo ID’s raises real questions about the integrity of the Democratic Party and why they have been pushing to remove voter ID laws. It not only raises questions about her wins in those States, it also raises questions about everyone else on those ballots. There was also a lot of Senators and House Representatives on the ballots in States  without photo ID requirements, as well as State Governors and legislative representatives. Were those races also compromised? It is only common sense that a photo ID should be required of everyone who votes. Mail in ballots used to require a reason such as being out of State  during the election but Democrats have opened it in many States to where anyone could do it without giving a reason. While that was a big help during the pandemic, the pandemic is over and there is no reason to allow unlimited mail in ballots. It is much easier to do a careful check of a few thousand mail-in ballots then it is to do a careful check of hundreds of thousands. By limiting it to only those with a valid reason, it limits the number to where it is easier to do a careful check of them. Picture voter ID’s need to be required in every State and mail-in ballots restricted to those with a valid reason.

AB-AG Ohio voters just rejected an issue to create an appointed redistricting commission which would not be elected or subject to removal by voters in spite of a great campaign of lies and distortions. It didn’t empower voters but would have created a group which was not accountable to citizens. It would consist of fifteen members, which would include Republicans, Democrats, and Independents with a mix of geographical and demographical representatives which sounds good but would depend on who chose them. There would be five of each group but would be chosen through a complex process. They would be chosen by retired judges, a hiring firm, and committee members but citizens had no choice over the selection. It was funded by a group of liberals seeking to weaponize ballot issues and force more progressive candidates It would have repealed constitutional protections against gerrymandering approved by almost 3/4 of voters in Statewide elections in 2015 and 2018 and eliminate the ability of voters to hold representatives accountable. The 2015 bill created a commission to draw State house districts and promised it would protect against gerrymandering by requiring a consensus of the group. The 2018 bill added congressional districts. Critics claimed the current system had failed and wanted to create an independent body of average citizens which sounds good but would  depend on who chose them. Former politicians, and lobbyists would not be eligible which sounds good. They said it puts citizens in charge but it was a power grab funded by dark money, most of it from out of State. They would be free to divide any county, city, or town into as many sections as needed.  It could divide minority districts in cities like in Detroit.  It would have given them unlimited spending power and an unlimited legal defense fund. Supporters of the bill said the present system is the most gerrymandered in the country, and they said the ballot language was false and misleading and didn’t represent the true amendment, but the ballot language is the basis of what people voted on.  Liberals are pushing bills all over the country that sound good to get voter approval but contain sections that allow all kinds of dangerous programs like legalizing a lottery, marijuana, and abortion.

Democrats are condemning Republicans for cleaning up their voter rolls by removing people who have not voted for several years, claiming they are denying these people the right to vote. In some States, they are even suing the State for cleaning their rolls, even though they are required to do so by federal law. The numbers have often been in the thousands of names and more. While removing people from the rolls may sound cruel, it ignores the facts. Many of those people have died or moved out of State and are no longer eligible to vote. The State has continually tried to contact the remaining ones and received no response indicating that either they are not interested in voting or are no longer living at the registered address and are not eligible to vote until they file a change of address. Anyone removed who decides they do want to vote has only to register again and they will be eligible to vote, so no one is being denied a chance to vote. Every name on the roll that hasn’t voted for years is an easy target for corrupt politicians. All they need to do is look up a name of someone who hasn’t voted and send someone to the polls claiming to be that person. Democrats usually don’t require the person to provide identification so it is easy for someone to do it. While Democrats claim that that it is rare for someone to vote illegally, it is known that around four million illegal immigrants were registered to vote in California alone, in the last Presidential election and about one million voted. Over five thousand jurors were removed from the rolls in Virginia because they were not legal citizens, and jurors are selected from voter rolls. It is estimated that over a thousand of them voted. In New Hampshire, where voters can register at the polls using out of State licenses for identification if they sign a statement they just moved into the State, over four thousand people voted, using out of State ID’s, claiming to have moved into the State, however over a thousand had not got a State license or register a car for license plates in the following year  indicating that either they were driving on a license that was no longer valid or they had not really moved into the State. Federal law requires States clean their rolls regularly to reduce the opportunity for fraud. Democrats are also fighting the attempts of some States to require those registering to vote provide proof of citizenship. Since some States allow illegal immigrants to get ID’s and even drivers licenses, it is important to show proof of citizenship since an ID or drivers license is no longer a proof of citizenship.

There are calls for an Article V Convention– They want to amend the Constitution to limit federal power, balance the budget, secure the border, and impose term limits. Those are worthy goals but the Constitution already limits federal power and federal law already requires a balanced budget and secure borders. However, voters keep electing representatives that openly violate the Constitution and federal law. Term limits would help by ending career politicians who live off the federal payroll, however voters can easily impose term limits by refusing to re-elect someone who has served over two terms. Unless voters take responsibility for who they vote for, nothing will change. If voters continue to re-elect the present politicians who ignore the Constitution and federal laws, we will get to where they will so corrupt the voting process that the people cannot vote them out, if we haven’t reached that point yet. The law means nothing if the people allow politicians to ignore it.