4 ms·

This is actually false. Most states require you to either mail-in your registration form (which requires access to a printer, knowledge of how to use the postal

This is actually false. Most states require you to either mail-in your registration form (which requires access to a printer, knowledge of how to use the postal service/where to get stamps [which, let's be honest, a lot of young people have never had to do], and a state-issued photo ID [which costs money, and requires you to have time to go to a government building anyways to get one issued to you]) or go fill out a form in-person (which means you need the free time to do so [government buildings operate 9-5, which is, inconveniently, generally the same timeframe people are at work. And people with hourly jobs cough young people and low-income people cough would literally lose money taking time off to do this). And that doesn't even touch on the fact that a lot of states make you show up in-person to vote (need a "legitimate" excuse for requesting absentee) and don't require employers to give you paid time-off to vote.

h4nkoslo 10y ago
My god, do you really want someone who cannot figure out how to use the mail exerting political power over you? Are you aware that anyone who wants employment in the US must present proof of employment eligibility, which in almost all circumstances will be sufficient to verify eligibility to vote ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-9_(form) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-9_(form) )? Have you not seen the booths & volunteers at just about any public event near election day registering people to vote, gratis? Exactly how deep into the bottom of the barrel do you want to scrape before you admit that for any reasonably participatory member of society, voting is actually pretty easy?
- rhallie15 10y ago
  > do you really want someone who cannot figure out how to use the mail exerting political power over you? No. I want anyone (which includes people who don't know how to use the mail) to have the ability to exercise their Consti-fucking-tutional rights. > Are you aware that anyone who wants employment in the US must present proof of employment eligibility, which in almost all circumstances will be sufficient to verify eligibility to vote Did you know that there are plenty of situations in which someone could have documents that would allow them to be eligible for employment, but not to register to vote in their state? Such as people who recently moved from one to another, and haven't had time to get a new state ID/DL? Do you also not understand how difficult it is to get any form of identification if you are, say, one of the millions of Americans who don't have a home? (And, before anyone tries to make the absurd argument that homeless people aren't online--most people [including homeless people, who, though they can't afford to spend thousands of dollars a year on a roof over their head, do generally recognize that it is more than worth it to pay less than a hundred dollars a month for a phone plan that will give them access to an unlimited source of information about anything--from open shelters to food drives] have phones capable of connecting to the Internet. Also public libraries) And did you also know that people without homes still have Constitutional rights? > Exactly how deep into the bottom of the barrel do you want to scrape before you admit that for any reasonably participatory member of society, voting is actually pretty easy? IDK yo--how deep of a hole are you going to dig yourself into before you admit that you're literally trying to tell someone that they're somehow doing their country a disservice by thinking about people less fortunate than themselves?
  - h4nkoslo 10y ago
    Voting isn't some fuzzy cost-free civic participation ritual, it is an exercise of power (or more accurately, a demonstration of power in lieu of its exercise). If you want to be ruled by someone who cannot figure out the mail, or cannot manage their affairs enough to sustain employment, can't get the same ID they use for any other institutional interaction they'd want to do, or doesn't speak the language of the people they're ruling, OK I guess, but a sane society does not. The less correspondence between what the voting pool desires and what those who pay for / enforce / submit to be regulated by their schemes do, the less reason there is for them to obey the results of the election. You aren't upset about the technical nuances of proof-of-residency requirements for people who move the week before the election; you're literally making a moral claim to be ruled by the retarded as long as there's enough of them.
    - rhallie15 10y ago
      Nah, I'm just aware of the fact that there are people disenfranchised by the current registration process who deserve the option to voice their opinion just as much as anyone else.
      - h4nkoslo 10y ago
        The point is to disenfranchise them, because they should not exercise power. If it's about "voicing their opinion", cool, they can say what they want, even in a non-election year. The thing about an "election", though, in the current regime, is that it imposes consequences on other people. If you just want civic ritual and a mascot to cheer for, turn on ESPN.
        rhallie15 10y ago
        http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/02/u-s-voter-turnout-trails-most-developed-countries/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/02/u-s-voter-tu...
    - rhallie15 10y ago

h4nkoslo 10y ago

My god, do you really want someone who cannot figure out how to use the mail exerting political power over you? Are you aware that anyone who wants employment in the US must present proof of employment eligibility, which in almost all circumstances will be sufficient to verify eligibility to vote ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-9_(form) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-9_(form) )? Have you not seen the booths & volunteers at just about any public event near election day registering people to vote, gratis? Exactly how deep into the bottom of the barrel do you want to scrape before you admit that for any reasonably participatory member of society, voting is actually pretty easy?

rhallie15 10y ago
> do you really want someone who cannot figure out how to use the mail exerting political power over you? No. I want anyone (which includes people who don't know how to use the mail) to have the ability to exercise their Consti-fucking-tutional rights. > Are you aware that anyone who wants employment in the US must present proof of employment eligibility, which in almost all circumstances will be sufficient to verify eligibility to vote Did you know that there are plenty of situations in which someone could have documents that would allow them to be eligible for employment, but not to register to vote in their state? Such as people who recently moved from one to another, and haven't had time to get a new state ID/DL? Do you also not understand how difficult it is to get any form of identification if you are, say, one of the millions of Americans who don't have a home? (And, before anyone tries to make the absurd argument that homeless people aren't online--most people [including homeless people, who, though they can't afford to spend thousands of dollars a year on a roof over their head, do generally recognize that it is more than worth it to pay less than a hundred dollars a month for a phone plan that will give them access to an unlimited source of information about anything--from open shelters to food drives] have phones capable of connecting to the Internet. Also public libraries) And did you also know that people without homes still have Constitutional rights? > Exactly how deep into the bottom of the barrel do you want to scrape before you admit that for any reasonably participatory member of society, voting is actually pretty easy? IDK yo--how deep of a hole are you going to dig yourself into before you admit that you're literally trying to tell someone that they're somehow doing their country a disservice by thinking about people less fortunate than themselves?
- h4nkoslo 10y ago
  Voting isn't some fuzzy cost-free civic participation ritual, it is an exercise of power (or more accurately, a demonstration of power in lieu of its exercise). If you want to be ruled by someone who cannot figure out the mail, or cannot manage their affairs enough to sustain employment, can't get the same ID they use for any other institutional interaction they'd want to do, or doesn't speak the language of the people they're ruling, OK I guess, but a sane society does not. The less correspondence between what the voting pool desires and what those who pay for / enforce / submit to be regulated by their schemes do, the less reason there is for them to obey the results of the election. You aren't upset about the technical nuances of proof-of-residency requirements for people who move the week before the election; you're literally making a moral claim to be ruled by the retarded as long as there's enough of them.
  - rhallie15 10y ago
    Nah, I'm just aware of the fact that there are people disenfranchised by the current registration process who deserve the option to voice their opinion just as much as anyone else.
    - h4nkoslo 10y ago
      The point is to disenfranchise them, because they should not exercise power. If it's about "voicing their opinion", cool, they can say what they want, even in a non-election year. The thing about an "election", though, in the current regime, is that it imposes consequences on other people. If you just want civic ritual and a mascot to cheer for, turn on ESPN.
      - rhallie15 10y ago
        http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/02/u-s-voter-turnout-trails-most-developed-countries/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/02/u-s-voter-tu...
  - rhallie15 10y ago