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Because 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 f

Because 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 ago
I 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 ago
  US 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 ago
    If only the southern racists during Jim Crow promoted voter suppression tactics as a way of reducing voter fraud like today.
  - weberc2 7y ago
    Maybe 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.
    - wbronitsky 7y ago
      I want to point out that there is no citation for this straw-man thought experiment. Even the Heritage Foundation, which is incentivized to dig up as much voter fraud as it possibly can, has only found fewer than 1250 individual cases in what seems to be the last decade. This is overwhelmingly lower than the preposterous 1% presented in the above straw-man. https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud Indeed my point was not just about voter fraud, but the racist history of Voter ID laws in the US. My overall point was that there is overwhelming and easily accessible evidence that voter ID laws are racist and that voter fraud is not an issue.
      - weberc2 7y ago
        I can't tell what the "straw man" argument you're referring to. Could you clarify?
- _jal 7y ago
  > I update my voter registration sometimes twice a year Well, almost nobody else behaves that way. As someone else who does things that are not common, my advice would be to recognize that you are way off the curve and don't universalize your experience.
- crooked-v 7y ago
  > Also, how is it hard to vote? Absentee ballots are totally easy to get. Certain political factions put a lot of work into making it actively more difficult to use absentee ballots. For example: https://www.apnews.com/ae1c8f1af38f4b4fb0187553be7a6e72 https://www.apnews.com/ae1c8f1af38f4b4fb0187553be7a6e72
- fzeroracer 7y ago
  Because generally it is very hard to commit voter fraud and adding an ID check does nothing but add an additional hoop for poor people to exercise their constitutional right.
- zucker42 7y ago
  10% of households don't have a computer and 15% of adults don't have a driver's license. Maybe your experiences don't generalize to the rest of the population. Also, many states require you register to far ahead of time and will arbitrarily purge you from the voting roles. So I guess my point is this is more of issue than you're making it seem.
  - weberc2 7y ago
    > 10% of households don't have a computer Does this include smart phones? Seems like percent of people with Internet access would be more relevant. I would think public libraries would also provide a lot of coverage here. > 15% of adults don't have a driver's license What's the statistic for adults with any kind of government issued identification? Surely that's more relevant for this debate than the driver's license statistic?
    - crooked-v 7y ago
      > What's the statistic for adults with any kind of government issued identification? Surely that's more relevant for this debate than the driver's license statistic? A factor to keep in mind here is that it's an established tactic for Republicans to specifically allow alternative IDs used by whites for voting purposes, while banning alternative IDs used by blacks for voting purposes. A North Carolina law was struck down in 2016 specifically for this reason, for example.
      - weberc2 7y ago
        Sure. Let's strike that shit down. Make sure ID requirements are even across the board. Seems like a pretty tractable problem.
        zucker42 7y ago
        Designing a system where people in power take actions that cause them to be less likely to remain in power is probably one of the most intractable problems in political science. It's why the U.S. has first past the post, why gerrymandering is a problem, and why voter ID laws are racist.
Accujack 7y ago
>The US is strange: It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote. Hint: the people wringing their hands and the people making it more difficult to vote are not the same groups.
- GiorgioG 7y ago
  > It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote. The republicans generally would prefer that lower-income folks don't vote because they generally vote for democrats, so of course they would like to see voter turn-out to be low.
  - awayfromhomenow 7y ago
    And the Democrats generally would prefer voters that vote even after death.
  - x86_64Ubuntu 7y ago
    Are we sure it's lower-income? Because if that were the case, then these Republican shenanigans in states like Ohio and Michigan would focus on rural areas. But we don't see that, we see them focusing almost exclusively on urban areas.
zapita 7y ago
> The US is strange: It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote. It's not strange, it's divided. One group is worried about low voter turnout. Another group is actively making it more difficult to vote. There is virtually no overlap between the two.
davidw 7y ago
> The US is strange: It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote. This all varies by state, too. Here in Oregon all voting is done by mail, and registration is automatic. It's meant to increase turnout and make it easy to vote.
- mjevans 7y ago
  Very similar in Washington (state) too; when you get a driving license or state ID the voting registration is built right in. There's also mail in ballots by default, at least in King county (Seattle/Bellevue, much of the suburbs). (I think the whole state)
gregmac 7y ago
In Canada, we get mailed a Voter Information Card [1] a month or two before the election. This basically just has your name and your polling and advanced polling location(s). It of course goes to your registered address. If you don't get this card, you know you're not registered (or are registered with the wrong address) and can fix that. You can even register at (what should be) your polling location on election day. This isn't a hard problem to solve. [1] https://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=vote&dir=vic&document=index&lang=e https://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=vote&dir=vic&...
- Izkata 7y ago
  (In Chicago) I get almost the exact same thing.

not_a_cop75 7y ago

I 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 ago
US 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 ago
  If only the southern racists during Jim Crow promoted voter suppression tactics as a way of reducing voter fraud like today.
- weberc2 7y ago
  Maybe 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.
  - wbronitsky 7y ago
    I want to point out that there is no citation for this straw-man thought experiment. Even the Heritage Foundation, which is incentivized to dig up as much voter fraud as it possibly can, has only found fewer than 1250 individual cases in what seems to be the last decade. This is overwhelmingly lower than the preposterous 1% presented in the above straw-man. https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud Indeed my point was not just about voter fraud, but the racist history of Voter ID laws in the US. My overall point was that there is overwhelming and easily accessible evidence that voter ID laws are racist and that voter fraud is not an issue.
    - weberc2 7y ago
      I can't tell what the "straw man" argument you're referring to. Could you clarify?
_jal 7y ago
> I update my voter registration sometimes twice a year Well, almost nobody else behaves that way. As someone else who does things that are not common, my advice would be to recognize that you are way off the curve and don't universalize your experience.
crooked-v 7y ago
> Also, how is it hard to vote? Absentee ballots are totally easy to get. Certain political factions put a lot of work into making it actively more difficult to use absentee ballots. For example: https://www.apnews.com/ae1c8f1af38f4b4fb0187553be7a6e72 https://www.apnews.com/ae1c8f1af38f4b4fb0187553be7a6e72
fzeroracer 7y ago
Because generally it is very hard to commit voter fraud and adding an ID check does nothing but add an additional hoop for poor people to exercise their constitutional right.
zucker42 7y ago
10% of households don't have a computer and 15% of adults don't have a driver's license. Maybe your experiences don't generalize to the rest of the population. Also, many states require you register to far ahead of time and will arbitrarily purge you from the voting roles. So I guess my point is this is more of issue than you're making it seem.
- weberc2 7y ago
  > 10% of households don't have a computer Does this include smart phones? Seems like percent of people with Internet access would be more relevant. I would think public libraries would also provide a lot of coverage here. > 15% of adults don't have a driver's license What's the statistic for adults with any kind of government issued identification? Surely that's more relevant for this debate than the driver's license statistic?
  - crooked-v 7y ago
    > What's the statistic for adults with any kind of government issued identification? Surely that's more relevant for this debate than the driver's license statistic? A factor to keep in mind here is that it's an established tactic for Republicans to specifically allow alternative IDs used by whites for voting purposes, while banning alternative IDs used by blacks for voting purposes. A North Carolina law was struck down in 2016 specifically for this reason, for example.
    - weberc2 7y ago
      Sure. Let's strike that shit down. Make sure ID requirements are even across the board. Seems like a pretty tractable problem.
      - zucker42 7y ago
        Designing a system where people in power take actions that cause them to be less likely to remain in power is probably one of the most intractable problems in political science. It's why the U.S. has first past the post, why gerrymandering is a problem, and why voter ID laws are racist.

Accujack 7y ago

>The US is strange: It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote. Hint: the people wringing their hands and the people making it more difficult to vote are not the same groups.

GiorgioG 7y ago
> It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote. The republicans generally would prefer that lower-income folks don't vote because they generally vote for democrats, so of course they would like to see voter turn-out to be low.
- awayfromhomenow 7y ago
  And the Democrats generally would prefer voters that vote even after death.
- x86_64Ubuntu 7y ago
  Are we sure it's lower-income? Because if that were the case, then these Republican shenanigans in states like Ohio and Michigan would focus on rural areas. But we don't see that, we see them focusing almost exclusively on urban areas.

zapita 7y ago

> The US is strange: It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote. It's not strange, it's divided. One group is worried about low voter turnout. Another group is actively making it more difficult to vote. There is virtually no overlap between the two.

davidw 7y ago

> The US is strange: It will wring its hands over low voter turnout while also actively making it more difficult to vote. This all varies by state, too. Here in Oregon all voting is done by mail, and registration is automatic. It's meant to increase turnout and make it easy to vote.

mjevans 7y ago
Very similar in Washington (state) too; when you get a driving license or state ID the voting registration is built right in. There's also mail in ballots by default, at least in King county (Seattle/Bellevue, much of the suburbs). (I think the whole state)

gregmac 7y ago

In Canada, we get mailed a Voter Information Card [1] a month or two before the election. This basically just has your name and your polling and advanced polling location(s). It of course goes to your registered address. If you don't get this card, you know you're not registered (or are registered with the wrong address) and can fix that. You can even register at (what should be) your polling location on election day. This isn't a hard problem to solve. [1] https://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=vote&dir=vic&document=index&lang=e https://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=vote&dir=vic&...

Izkata 7y ago
(In Chicago) I get almost the exact same thing.