It’s wild.
There are some local and state governments trying to pass automatic voter registration, but it’s an uphill battle, not unlike most things that would generally benefit the public good in this country.
Comment on Goddammit Texas!
Hubi@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
As a European, the whole registering to vote thing is honestly one of the wildest parts of the US elections to me. It’s just so unnecessary complicated and prone to errors/manipulation. I just show up with my ID, doesn’t matter if it’s for the EU parliament or my the city senate in my hometown.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
b34k@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Even in California, we got automatic voter registration passed the legislature, only for the governor to veto it.
Just wild that something so fundamental to a functioning democracy is so divisive.
OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
functioning democracy
That’s exactly why it’s divisive. They don’t want a functioning democracy.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
There’s never been a United States ID card, for… reasons. As a Californian, I could get a California ID card, at the same place I got my California Driver’s License, if I didn’t intend to drive. The forms have the option of adding Voter Registration using the same information (birth certificate, proof of residence) at the same time. But some states make it all much more complicated.
elephantium@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
United States ID card
Passport seems like it sorta fits, but it’s hardly universal.
deo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
Doesn’t have your address on it though.
elephantium@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Is it not an ID because of that? I don’t see the relevance of mentioning address here.
myrrh@ttrpg.network 5 weeks ago
…what the electorate consider a bug the politicians consider a feature…
actually@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
So… I’m in Texas , been here a long time.
most ballot counts in the primaries and general are counted by secret software and hardware run by ultra conservative families the last 20 plus years. Recounts are not allowed and exit polls not used anymore because of unpredictability.
Nobody cares, no political party wants to change : not a topic in forums anywhere, even in conspiracy minded chat rooms, and it’s been this way forever ( since before 2000).
There is a ton of crazy that is ignored .
I’ve seen how the system works, I’ve been at the county chair level. Nobody will criticize it . There is a quiet culture of people knowing it’s invalid but decide to leave it be.
kent_eh@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
It’s so unnecessary complicated and prone to errors/manipulation
That’s why it exists - to make it more inconvenient for people (especially in certain demographics) to vote.
eldavi@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
the sound bites you hear about voting are intentionally misleading: you have to show up with an id to vote here too and that’s not where to controversy lies.
the controversy is registering to vote and the conservative states intentionally make registering as heavily bureaucratic as possible in the hopes of minimizing the number of people who cant register to vote.
they’ve also dedicated hundreds of millions on dollars to understand an enact policies to keep the poor and minority groups from voting.
democrats sit back and let republicans openly do it.
Devdogg@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
Hold on, I’m in MN and we don’t have to show our ID to vote.
eldavi@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
the reason why we have this mess is because the states get to make up whatever rules they want around voting so long as they never officially block you from voting. doing so would force the federal government to step in, so the red & purple states are careful not to poke that bear and instead focus their voter suppression efforts on the aspects of voting that previous court cases had decided that federal government has no say: like registration.
biden won because several purple states managed to make registration & voting easier (eg most of the battleground states) and they’ve all since then repealed that easier access.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 5 weeks ago
It’s overblown. It’s mostly propaganda.
I just have to show up with my ID
My ID is good for 5 years, and I am required to update it within 60 days of changing residences. Every time I’ve renewed or updated it, they have asked me if I wanted to register or update my voter registration. My registration is updated every time I vote, and I don’t get de-registered unless I skip voting for about a decade straight, without re-registering when I renew my ID card.
ALL of the problems with voter registration are about people who either can’t or won’t get or renew their ID card. Every time you read about voter registration issues in the US, you should imagine going to your polling station without a current ID card.
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
That’s called privilege. You literally don’t realize what a burden it is for some people to comply with voter registration requirements, because your life is such that it’s easy for you.
I could try and explain it, but in my experience every example I give, you’ll take out of context and come up with a simple fix. Because you aren’t able to understand the cumulative effect of thousands of these examples all happening all the time. You’ll just pick each one, imagine it happening to you in your life once, and think “oh that’s not a big deal I could handle that”. But it’s death by a thousand cuts. “That” is not a one time aberration. Your whole life is nothing but “that”.
You just have to believe those of us more experienced in that kind of hardship than you.
Or, alternatively, believe the Republicans who have been caught on a hot mic saying that they implent voter ID laws specifically to suppress Dem votes.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 5 weeks ago
That’s called privilege. You literally don’t realize what a burden it is for some people to comply with voter registration requirements, because your life is such that it’s easy for you.
The “privilege” you are talking about is the exact same privilege the parent comment assumed:
I just have to show up with my ID, doesn’t matter if it’s for the EU parliament or the local city senate.
The “privilege” you are talking about is “having an ID card”. Every time you obtain, renew, replace, update, or otherwise contact the state bureau handling ID cards (usually, the DMV), they are required, under federal law, to update your voter registration unless you specifically decline.
The European standard is “get an ID card, show up and vote”. We implemented the European standard back in 1993.
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Proving my point here. Yes, that’s privilege. It seems like normal to you, as all privilege does. But it’s very difficult for a lot of people.
GBU_28@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Hmm they did say “can’t” suggesting they acknowledge some folks have things blocking them
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 5 weeks ago
Yes, there are people who can’t obtain an ID card, for whatever reason. A European citizen who couldn’t obtain an ID card would have the exact same problems voting that an American citizen does. I don’t have a systemic solution for that. This would seem to be something that would need to be handled on a case-by-case basis, possibly involving the judicial system and a court order. It also doesn’t seem to be a particularly common problem. I’d bet all the money in my pockets that OP does, indeed, have some sort of ID card.
We have a remedy for this: Provisional ballots. Cast your vote now, and resolve any clusterfuck with registration later.
turtletracks@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
“I’ve had no issues, therefore issues don’t exist”
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 5 weeks ago
What I’m describing has been federal law for over 30 years. The European criticism about ID cards is nonsensical. Every time you obtain, renew, or amend your drivers license or ID, you update your voter registration.
Remember the context of my comment: I am replying to European criticism of registration. The European approach is for everyone to obtain a government issued ID card and present it at the polling station. The NVRA already does this. We have already adopted the European solution to this problem.
barsoap@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
I don’t need my ID to vote, also it’s valid for 10 years. Municipalities fill the voting registry from their citizens’ registry, then send out notifications to everyone. You literally cannot miss an election. You generally go voting with that notification, it’s sufficient, or use it to request a mail-in ballot.
I’m sure administration is sufficiently different in the US than it is in Germany for the thing to not be able to work like that, but, big picture: The IRS can find everyone. Have them fill the registry, then.
ImminentOrbit@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Except, the whole point of this thread is an example of that not being the case.
Badeendje@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Yeah but we have voter id. And for some reason Americans think it is unreasonable to have to have a government issued ID as this would disenfranchise all the people that don’t have an ID… Which I think is also weird. Just make IDs accessible to citizens at low costs and implement voterID across the board.
billiam0202@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
A certain political party benefits from low voter turnout. Which, coincidentally, also happens to be the party working to get Trump elected and shield him from the repercussions of his crimes.
Badeendje@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Yeah. It’s also not as if doing this now will be reasonable. It will be something that needs to be put into law including the affordable national ID and then worked towards over the course of a decade or something.
mle86@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
They could just make a government ID that is not mandatory. Much like a passport. And whoever holds a passport or a voluntary govt ID is automatically enabled to vote using their ID / passport, but then would still leave the choice of registering for voting for those who don’t trust “the government”
Badeendje@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Why? The whole “illegals are voting” will be dead in the water. And requiring someone to be able to ID themselves using a government issued and official ID when performing stuff like voting is not weird. The whole convoluted show up with birth certificate yadda yadda is.
mle86@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
Yeah that’s pretty much what I meant, sorry if I wasn’t clear.
I just think in order to reduce the resistance against such a change, it might be good to still provide the “old” method with voter registration for anyone who doesn’t want a government ID because of “muh freedoms”.
That way, any normal citizen can just have a government ID and by identifying themselves be able to vote without further registration. Any citizen who doesn’t want an ID can go through a voter registration process, same as today.
Revan343@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
Just make IDs accessible to citizens at low costs
This is where you’re missing it. The point of requiring voter ID in America is to make it as difficult and inaccessible as they can
faercol@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 weeks ago
Depends on the country though. In France you must be registered to vote (you’re assigned a specific voting office). It’s a single registration foe everything, not for each vote
Although the process is online, and takes like 5mins.
You also get a voting card, but it’s technically optional, it just speeds up the process in the voting office.
abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Just want to add, in the US you’d don’t have to register to vote each election/vote, just when you change address.
GBU_28@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Imagine you moved countries, and we’re entitled to vote in both.
You have to tell the new country you exist there.
That’s the most common failure mode in the US, when you move states or even counties and there’s a miscommunication or lack of communication between where you came from and where you are.
There are other issues, but this is the most common.
You don’t vote at a federal level, you vote at a state level, for federal stuff. (And state/local stuff)
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
I think for most people in the US when you move you have to get a new driver’s license, and that process also lets you register to vote
kent_eh@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
Not every adult has a driver’s licence.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
True, and that is an issue, but I guess the main thing I’m getting at is that despite voter registration not being a unified system a majority of people moving between states aren’t going to be deterred from registering by a Kafkaesque bureaucratic labyrinth.
ech@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Some states have lifetime DL terms, while others are still ridiculously long.
GBU_28@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
That’s true but I’m just explaining the potential problem.
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 5 weeks ago
[deleted]GBU_28@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
As I said, federal government doesn’t handle this. So the IRS is involved for several reasons.
leadore@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
As a European, the whole registering to vote thing is honestly one of the wildest parts of the US elections to me. It’s so unnecessary complicated and prone to errors/manipulation. I just have to show up with my ID, doesn’t matter if it’s for the EU parliament or the local city senate.
I see comments like this a lot. Most important and apparently most difficult for Europeans (and others but it’s almost always Europeans) to understand is that the US is a very large country, made up of 50 semi-independent states, each with its own government and laws-- about many things, not just elections. So that’s why things are more complex here–we’re not a small monolithic nation with one single, centralized government and set of laws that apply to everyone no matter where in the country they live.
Each US State runs its own elections; a person obviously can’t be allowed to vote in more than one state. Since people can move from one state to another at any time, and even have residences in more than one state at the same time (such as college students and well-off people), it’s necessary to register with the state you will be voting in, so that you are officially able to vote in that state and no other.
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
You do realize some countries in Europe have federal governments (Germany for example), right? And then these completely independent countries are part of the EU which have EU elections. So you have federation within federation. Also, the EU has higher population than the USA. We don’t even all speak the same language. You are allowed to move between EU countries whenever you like and have residence where you please.
So what is your excuse again?
twei@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
Wait, Europe isn’t just France, Germany and the UK?
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
If you weren’t so broke, you would know there is also Switzerland. ;)
drkt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
In a incredible stroke of irony, you just described the European Union
Cethin@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
It’s by design. We could make it easier, but certain groups benefit from making it difficult.
match@pawb.social 5 weeks ago
In conclusion, please send the UN to fix us
barsoap@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
The OSCE reports are usually just shy of scathing. The US reaction to those missions ranges, as far as I’m aware, from being completely oblivious to it or its results to Sheriffs trying to arrest observers.
Jikiya@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Well the reason is that there are state laws against outside observers, and no treaty giving any foreign government the ability to monitor. So they’re just enforcing the laws, as they’re supposed to.
Mind you I’m not saying the UN or any other nation is going to interfere, but seems really important to follow laws around voting to make sure the attitude of enforcement isn’t lax.
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
On the one hand, the UN making a resolution that they won’t trust the results of the US elections would play right into the hands of what some MAGAs are saying.
But MAGAs then agreeing to any UN resolution, especially one that requires third party oversight…
I’d say the odds are even on this.