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How hard is it really for a voter to reregister? You guys are making it sound like it they're taking away driver's licenses or something. All you have to do is
by not_a_cop75 7y ago
How hard is it really for a voter to reregister? You guys are making it sound like it they're taking away driver's licenses or something. All you have to do is hit the website. If you don't have internet access hit a library.
- TazeTSchnitzel 7y agoYou don't find out you need to re-register until it's too late.
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoDon't most places allow same day registration at the polls? Every state I've voted in does. Edit: ok, 2/5ths isn't most but it's still a lot. Chill with the down-votes, it was an honest question, not an attack on your ideology.
- lalaithion 7y agoOnly 17 states have same day registration. Ohio does not.
- ceejayoz 7y agoSorta. There are problems with that approach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_ballot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_ballot > The rates of rejection vary widely across the states, with some states counting all or nearly all provisional ballots while others reject more than half. I would expect maliciously executed voter purges to be accompanied by malicious rules on provisional ballots.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- spamizbad 7y agoOnly 21 states[1] offer same-day registration. It's far less common in the south and midwest regions of the US. [1] http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/same-day-registration.aspx http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/same-da...
- bryanlarsen 7y agoNope, deadline was a week ago yesterday. https://www.rockthevote.org/voting-information/election-dates-deadlines/ohio/ https://www.rockthevote.org/voting-information/election-date...
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y agoOnly 17 states allow this. Only a subset of them have registration at the polls.
- manderley 7y agoGuess what the Republicans eliminated in Ohio a few years ago: Same-day voter registration.
- xythian 7y agoMost do not. > As of June 30, 2019, a total of 21 states plus the District of Columbia have enacted same day registration (SDR), which allows any qualified resident of the state to go to register to vote and cast a ballot all in that day. http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/same-day-registration.aspx http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/same-da... And, same day isn't necessarily the best solution. For example, Oregon does vote-by-mail. This process would make it difficult to allow for same day registration. But, Oregon also has nation leading voter turnout. No polling places, no hassle, just an envelope in the mail. * Oregon also does automatic registrations when interacting with the DMV.
- Operyl 7y agoFlorida also does easy opt in voting (checkbox) with most DMV requests now too (not sure how long that’s been a thing).
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoIsn’t that a federal law (the voter motor law)? See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Voter_Registration_Act_of_1993 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Voter_Registration_...
- Operyl 7y agoDidn’t know that was a law, neat.
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- bryanlarsen 7y agoAnd perhaps that is the real problem rather than the deregistration. Here in Canada you can register at the polling station on the day of the election.
- dragontamer 7y agoThe real problem is that one of our parties in the USA is passing laws to lower voter turnout. The precise rules of voting don't really matter: as long as the anti-vote group gets what they want, they'll suppress the vote and strengthen themselves politically.
- twoquestions 7y agoFor those who don't know, the last day you can register to vote before a general election is October 7 https://www.sos.state.oh.us/elections/voters/register/ https://www.sos.state.oh.us/elections/voters/register/
- not_a_cop75 7y agoI mean notification should be a requirement of kicking people off the rolls. That seems reasonable.
- wbronitsky 7y agoI think instead of framing this issue as "how easy would it be to re-register" we could instead ask "why should anyone have to register to vote at all?" In the US, voting is a right, which is something that cannot and should not be taken away. Invalidating voting registration, especially in a targeted way, is deplorable.
- dd36 7y agoThat’s actually a good argument for registering guns. I have to register for my voting rights, you have to register for your gun rights.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoThere would be an uproar if we regulated voting the same way we regulated guns. Imagine if everyone who smoked weed and voted was committing a felony (to name but one example). Imagine if states had laws saying you need to take a class, pay a hundred bucks and get the police chief's permission before you could vote. Imagine if there was a federal agency that could unilaterally make rules about voting. Imagine if polling places were required to keep records of who voted for what when. Imagine if certain cities and states all but required extensive political connections to get a voting license. Trust me, you really don't want to regulate voting the way we regulate guns. There's a reason people like to compare various gun laws to poll taxes. Edit: The down vote to reply ratio indicates that what I am saying is factually correct yet inconvenient.
- homonculus1 7y agoAs we see from this very article, the outcome of making people register for their rights is to deny them their rights. Don't race to the bottom, we'll all just end up... at the bottom.
- dd36 7y agoThe idea would be to equate the two to get rid of voter registration. Really, it’s to demonstrate the absurdity of both positions.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- exochrono 7y agoFrom the article, it sounded like many of the people who were to be deregistered had no idea that it was about to happen, and they likely wouldn't find out until they showed up to vote on election day.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- peteradio 7y agoProblem is you have no reason to believe you've been dropped and show up to vote but are given a provisional (throwaway ) ballot.
- maxerickson 7y agoWhy do people have to register to vote at all? The state has a sort of pretty solid idea of where they live...
- aaronbrethorst 7y agoTo make it more difficult for prospective voters who are perhaps not white, poorer, younger, are working multiple jobs, or are a single parent, just to name a few examples. You can connect the dots on why groups like these are disenfranchised by the state.
- awayfromhomenow 7y agoThat's a pretty strong allegation over something that is free. Voter registration costs the person registering nothing but time, and states make it as easy as possible to register. Anyone wanting to vote can register.
- ahbyb 7y agoMy favourite conspiracy: you only know you have to register to vote if you are white.
- crooked-v 7y agoThat's not what the comment you're responding to said.
- scrooched_moose 7y agoNot really. You can easily move without informing the new state. Millions of college students do it every year. The last move I made was in September so I hadn't changed licenses or filed income taxes yet, so they had no awareness of me yet. Luckily I'm in a fairly permissive state and was able to register with a couple utility bills without any hassle. Some sort of voter registration is a necessity when you can move 3000 miles in a weekend. Unfortunately it's often used to disenfranchise voters, but a significant subset of the population does not have up-to-date records. Registration is a way to fix that.
- spamizbad 7y agoBecause this is HN and you're probably young-ish: When you're older and you've set down roots the last time you updated your voter registration was probably a few decades ago. Chances are your polling place hasn't likely changed either. So you know when elections come, you go to your usual polling place, give your name, get your ballet and "pull the lever" so to speak. You're not thinking "Oh I better double-check my voter registration!" because you haven't needed to do that in ages because your address and party affiliation hasn't changed in years. The US is strange: It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote.
- not_a_cop75 7y agoI update my voter registration sometimes twice a year to match the party I most like at the time, It's always been online - easy peasy. I expect to get downvoted to hell but I also don't get why showing an ID to vote is such a big deal. After all, I have to look up the numbers in my drivers license to vote. Also, how is it hard to vote? Absentee ballots are totally easy to get. If I was blind, I might have to plan ahead to get the help to do it. Otherwise, no biggie.
- wbronitsky 7y agoUS history is why its a big deal to show your ID to vote. Wikipedia has a great summary of the racist policies voter ID laws were made to enforce, and that voter fraud is "vanishingly rare" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_ID_laws_in_the_United_States#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_ID_laws_in_the_United_St...
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoIf only the southern racists during Jim Crow promoted voter suppression tactics as a way of reducing voter fraud like today.
- weberc2 7y agoMaybe voter fraud is "vanishingly rare", but that statement in the wikipedia article only links to a NYT article which says: > Academic studies have repeatedly concluded that fraud at the ballot box — the sort that photo identification requirements might reduce — is already vanishingly rare. With no citation. Anyway, "vanishingly rare" could mean that fewer than 1% of votes are fraudulent, but those fraudulent votes could be concentrated in a handful of key counties thereby having a big impact. I'm not arguing in favor of tougher voter ID restrictions but rather in favor of educated discourse.
- Aloha 7y agoI'd agree with you if a voter could just instantly register at the time of voting. Ideally there wouldn't be any need for registration at all.
- stephencanon 7y agoHarder than it is to not wrongfully remove them in the first place, which is really all that needs to be said.
- pstuart 7y agoWell they are certainly trying to make it hard: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/court-upholds-ohio-s-cuts-early-voting-same-day-registration-n636666 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/court-upholds-ohi...