Edit/Update: It turns out that my last name has a capitol letter in the middle and they put a space in it. Thank god. I can actually vote this year.
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
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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.
It's overblown. It's mostly propaganda.
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.
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.
Hmm they did say "can't" suggesting they acknowledge some folks have things blocking them
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.
You don't need an ID in Germany to vote just, push comes to shove, a way to make your identity believable. Expired ID, student ID, personalised public transport ticket, perfectly sufficient. Generally you just vote with your election notification, a sheet of paper with your address, ballot location, and number in the voter registry on it. If you try to vote with an ID but without notification workers are going to roll their eyes because they'll have to manually search for you in their lists, heck, you might've turned up at the wrong location.
The "privilege" you are talking about is the exact same privilege the parent comment assumed:
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.
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.
It is, indeed, but the proper solution here is to lift them up to the bar, not lower the bar down to them.
Lack of ID prevents you from getting and keeping a job, attending school, accessing the banking system, getting a PO box, getting licenses. Being unable to vote is the least of your problems.
The proper solution is not to figure out how to make voting accessible to those without an ID. The proper solution is to get them an ID.
Nope. Voting is a fundamental right of a citizen. An illiterate dude living in a cave who has never even seen a concrete building should have the right to vote, if he's a citizen. It is a civic responsibility for us to lower the bar for voting as low as possible to disenfranchise as few people as possible.
All those things you said about IDs are true, and yes we should be helping people get them. But in the mean time we must not disenfranchise them.
There is no recurring manual registration. You only need to register once in your lifetime.
If you move, you have to update your ID within 60 days, and every time you update your ID, they update your voter registration automatically. (unless you decline).
That has been federal law since 1993, and is pretty much equivalent to European standards.
You really have to go out of your way to not be registered to vote.
A huge fraction of people (again, poor people, whom I'm sure you're too privileged to associate with) do not file taxes and are not required to file taxes. See we're getting into that thing I mentioned earlier where I give a thousand examples and you individualize each one.
If he knows his date of birth and his social security number, he can register in California. If he doesn't know his SSN, they can look it up for him. In Texas, he doesn't get to vote.
"I've had no issues, therefore issues don't exist"
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.
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.
Except, the whole point of this thread is an example of that not being the case.