Nuns and the vote
A group of Indiana nuns were turned away from a South Bend polling place last week because they lacked photo IDs, which are required to vote in that state. Now, their colleagues in St. Louis are urging Missouri lawmakers not to pass a similar requirement here.
“We strongly urge all Missouri citizens to contact their representatives and ask them to vote against this measure,” said Sr. Jane Hotstream, president of the St. Louis Regional Community of the Sisters of Mercy, in a statement released Friday afternoon.
House Joint Resolution 48, the photo ID measure, was given no chance of passing as the session began. the Missouri Supreme Court had ruled a similar bill unconstitutional. But the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Indiana law to stand, giving new hope to the bill’s mostly Republican supporters.
That’s a bad idea, Sr. Hotstream said. “A more restrictive law will make it harder for citizens to vote and undermine civic participation vital to a healthy democracy,” the nuns’ statement notes.
That, of course, is the idea. With just hours left in the legislative session, though, it’s unlikely that the nuns’ appeal will have much impact.
Of course, no one thought Sr. Mary Stigmata could get $5,000 to save St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud Orphanage in Chicago, either. But this time, there’s no Blues Brothers to ride to the rescue.
(Post-Dispatch file photo)
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John G. Carlton is an editorial writer who covers health care, science, the environment and public utilities. Before joining the editorial page, "Doc" was the newspaper's medical writer for four years. He has also worked at newspapers in Connecticut and New York. He's fond of heavy sarcasm and light anti-tank weapons. He lives in west St. Louis County with his wife, Martha Madigan, their daughter Ana and an overly enthusiastic Australian Shepherd dog, Savannah. 
In my humble Roman Catholic opinion, many nuns are out of the mainstream, and probably have been for much of their lives or they would never have become nuns in the first place. Some of them have become almost notorious for their liberalism. Thank God there are some exceptions.
I described the perfect crime yesterday on this website. Simply walk into any polling place, sign in using any open name you see on the roster, place your second, third or fourth vote of the day, and leave in minutes without a trace. Robin Carnahan and Ray Hartman of course say otherwise. They have “never seen any evidence of voter impersonation, none, nada, zilch”. Many of the rest of us understand and disagree with their agenda.