In 1812, Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry tried rigging elections by redrawing district boundaries so his Democratic-Republican Party (the forerunner of today's Democratic Party) would win more seats.  One such district was shaped like a salamander, which critics called a "Gerrymander."

The Democrats ever since have used trickery to win.

Unelected Pennsylvania Supreme Court judges voted along partisan lines, 5-2, to control the legislature's power to draw congressional districts.  In 2000, Democrats tried to throw out overseas ballots by Florida soldiers, and the far left Center for American Progress this February proposed making it harder for Americans in uniform to vote overseas, because soldiers tend to vote as conservatives.  In 2016, Virginia's Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order giving votes to more than 100,000 felons, who vote up to 88 percent Democratic.

President Barack Obama, as Craig R. Smith and I noted in our book Money, Morality  & The Machine, broke all legal limits with his "Obamamander," in effect stretching the southern border of the U.S. to include voters from all of Mexico and half of Central America.  On April 1, California will begin automatically registering all driver license holders to vote and will remove any criminal penalty from non-citizens thus registered who vote illegally.

The latest Democratic scheme could be called "gerrymandering by age."  Several efforts are underway – including some reportedly receiving funds from billionaire radical George Soros – to lower the voting age from 18 to 17 or 16.  Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett advocates votes for 16-year-olds.  Leftist Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe writes that "[t]eens between 14 and 18 have far better BS detectors, on average, than 'adults' 18 and older.  Wouldn't it be great if the voting age were lowered to 16?"

In fact, young voters are inexperienced and naïve, immature, and dependent on others, and they generally have never held a serious job or had to pay taxes or a mortgage.  They are easy prey for leftist teachers and demagogues who advocate wealth redistribution, gun confiscation, and other radical schemes.

As with soldiers and felons, leftists want to do more than give votes to immature voters.  They also want to take away the right to vote from older citizens, who tend to vote conservatively.  Time Magazine's Joel Stein argues:

Old people vote shortsightedly, choosing the least Progressive outcome. In surveys in the U.S. and the U.K., people over 65 – compared with people under 30 – were nearly twice as likely to be against gay marriage; twice as likely to be pro-Brexit; half as likely to support legalization of marijuana; nearly five times less likely to want to spend money on education; 60% more likely to vote for Donald Trump; and nearly 50% more likely to say immigrants have a negative impact on society.

"The over-65 generation does not accurately represent our country," writes Stein, "because they are overwhelmingly white and actually vote.  So, unfortunately, we're going to have to bar them from voting."  Is he joking?

To do this, the left must circumvent the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says, "The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age."

Odds are the Democrats will follow Mr. Obama, who confiscated guns from Social Security recipients not because they were old, but because their need for help filling out government paperwork was "evidence" that they're "mental defectives," a judgment Democrats could use to take away their Second Amendment rights.

Ironically, Democrats have worked to increase voting by the mentally deficient, whose ballots can be filled out and cast absentee by liberal government social workers...to gerrymander and steal elections.

The left already denies freedom of speech and threatens violence against those with non-leftist opinions, such as disbelief in global warming or support for President Donald Trump.  How large a next step is it to deny the vote to those who demonstrate their "mental deficiency" by opposing the left?

Lowell Ponte is a veteran think-tank futurist and author or co-author of eight books.  His latest, co-authored with Craig R. Smith, is Money, Morality & The Machine, available free and postpaid by calling 800-630-1492.  Lowell can be reached for interviews by email at radioright@aol.com.