American Voter Registration

[Gaius Marius]

We have a simple as shit system in Canada. Whenever the writ gets dropped, Elections Canada sends out something like 20 million cards to every eligible voter. You take your card to the polling place, show a piece of photo ID to confirm you are the person on the card, and you vote.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

We don't want a registry.

Indeed.  That sounds horrible.

it isn't. And it's not as if your governments don't have the data either. So why the angst :p

[CountDeMoney]

This week's election for Mayor of Baltimore had 7% turnout of registered voters.  Shameful.

[garbon]

We don't want a registry.

Indeed.  That sounds horrible.

it isn't. And it's not as if your governments don't have the data either. So why the angst :p

I think we've already established that they don't really.

[dps]

We don't want a registry.

Indeed.  That sounds horrible.

it isn't. And it's not as if your governments don't have the data either. So why the angst :p

I think we've already established that they don't really.

I think citizens of other countries are so used to their govenments having a lot of data on them that they can't believe how little our government has on us (which is still more than most of us are completely comfortable with).

[Viking]

I think citizens of other countries are so used to their govenments having a lot of data on them that they can't believe how little our government has on us (which is still more than most of us are completely comfortable with).

Being a california boy I must claim exemption. I know how little the US government actually knows, I don't think it should add more knowledge, but rather that it should pool the information it has and in this specific case to register voters using this pooled information rather than waiting for them to do it themselves.

I think that systematizing and organizing the information that the government already has can replace the census itself. The census is in the constitution, but then again 18th century farmers didn't know shit about 21st century information technology. I think US authorities on all levels should use this information they spend so much money and time collecting (often duplicating the work since they can't share the information).

[Duque de Bragança]

I also think Election Day should be a national holiday.  Voting when you have to work a full day can be an enormous pain in the ass depending on your hours and your polling place, and there's no principled reason why people should have a harder or easier time voting based on their employment.

Most western countries have elections on Sunday for this precise reason.

[Razgovory]

Some people are forbidden to do anything resembling work on Sunday.

EDIT:  Also some polling stations are in houses of worship.  Like mine.  Which could make it unnecessarily crowded.

[Viking]

Some people are forbidden to do anything resembling work on Sunday.

When deciding who to dis-enfranchise, the employed or the credulous I prefer to disenfranchise the credulous.

[Razgovory]

Some people are forbidden to do anything resembling work on Sunday.

When deciding who to dis-enfranchise, the employed or the credulous I prefer to disenfranchise the credulous.

Yes, but as a rule of thumb, we aren't interested in taking into consideration the opinions of bigots.

[The Brain]

Some people are forbidden to do anything resembling work on Sunday.

Land of the free?

[Razgovory]

Land of the freeloader.