WEEKLY EDITORIAL RECAP

TUESDAY

SAME-DAY REGISTRATION

Assembly Bill 108 would eliminate the deadline for registering to vote and permit registration at the city or county clerk's office right up to the time the polls close. ... Larry Lomax, Clark County's registrar of voters, reports that only one state, Montana, allows same-day registration at the clerk's office, and that its lawmakers are considering a bill to change that. ...

Mr. Lomax said in his experience voter fraud is rare, but he conceded, "It is significantly easier if you have Election Day registration."

One can easily envision a concerted effort by any given candidate to sweep people off the streets, hand them a pre-filled sample ballot and a sandwich and bus them to the polling places en masse. Whether enough of those press-ganged voters would clear subsequent scrutiny to alter an election's outcome is a matter of conjecture.

But is a modicum of convenience worth the potential devastation of voter confidence in the integrity of the ballot box? We don't think so.

WEDNESDAY

ENTITLEMENT CRISIS

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada again demonstrated why Washington is so incapable of addressing runaway federal spending.

For the second time in a month, Sen. Reid said there's no problem with the Social Security system, even though economists, the Congressional Budget Office and President Obama's deficit commission agree it's unsustainable. It is already is paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes.

To address a crisis, you have to acknowledge that one exists. Yet, at a rally against Social Security reform, Sen. Reid said, "Let's worry about Social Security when it's a problem." Two weeks ago, he told MSNBC, "Two decades from now, I'm willing to look at it." ...

Two-thirds of the budget goes to entitlements and interest on the national debt. We borrow to fund everything else. To put off those reforms for another year -- let alone 20 -- is the height of nonfeasance and irresponsibility.

THURSDAY

PUBLIC FINANCING

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard an appeal to Arizona's law allowing public financing of election campaigns. ... While voters may have meant well, it's hard to imagine a more dangerous form of "corruption" than allowing the government to set provisions for whose campaigns get funded, and then to hand more money to the government's chosen candidates whenever those who are funded "merely" by voluntary donors threaten to outspend the anointed ones.