An eager reader sends me an article under the heading "another thing for Jason Gant to screw up":
Did you know that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is connected to voting rights? The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires that government offices that provide public assistance also offer voter registration. That's the "Motor Voter" Act, which allows you to register to vote at the same time and place that you're getting your license plates.
The PPACA's health insurance exchanges will be government offices. Thus, while your friendly ACA Health Insurance Marketplace rep is helping you and your family save thousands of dollars on better coverage, that rep will also ask if you want to register to vote and help you fill out and submit your registration if you do.
There is some debate over whether the Motor Voter Act actually applies to the insurance exchanges, especially in the fervid imaginations of right-wingers who fear registered voters who enjoy the benefits of ObamaCare. Given that angle, South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant will likely claim he has to ask the defunct Election Assistance Commission wha the law requires him to do.
But wait! Gant's boss, Governor Dennis Daugaard, has left South Dakota's exchange in Uncle Sam's hands. The federal government has no problem following the Motor Voter Act, so the nice federal employee signing you up for insurance on the exchange will be glad to help you register to vote. The only thing for Secretary Gant to screw up will be somehow losing the registration forms at Burger King... and I wouldn't put that past him.
Who is running against Gant?