this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
481 points (98.8% liked)

politics

19243 readers
2263 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

If you live in Texas, make sure to register to vote! The deadline is coming up in a few days on the 7th. Note that for Texas you must register either in person or by mail, you cannot register online unlike most states


Find information on how to register to vote anywhere https://vote.gov/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] petersr@lemmy.world 74 points 2 months ago (7 children)

I have never understood why you need to register ahead of time to vote in US. It seems like an unnecessary blocker. In Denmark you just show up on the day, state your SSN, show ID and get a ballot.

[–] assaultpotato@sh.itjust.works 69 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You need to do it because it's an unnecessary blocker. That's the point. Poor people disproportionately struggle to jump through the hurdles in place for voting, and Poor people disproportionately vote D. R loves to make voting harder under the auspices of "fraud prevention".

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Also a lot of federal centralization didnt happen until the great depression, we are a federation of states meaning that historically it most shit was handled by the states and not in a states rights way but a who runs the local library sort of way. It was easier bureaucracatically as well allowing the feds to focus on other things.

This is also why random bits of bureaucracy is not standardized across all states, like the DMV sure most states got the memo but then you have whatever the fuck Washington is doing.

[–] RupeThereItIs@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It really is also a states rights thing. The federal government, by design, has no say in how elections or driver's licenses work.

That they have stepped in to the driver's license space is an overstep of their authority, honestly.

The federal government is not the sovereign entity, the many states are.

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

That's no longer true, the 14th amendment effectively made the constitution sovereign over all the states, period. That's how incorporation works, otherwise states could have handgun bans again like in the 19th century.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

I meant in the southern way, not in the wesetern states let us do our own thing sort of way.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The feds have nothing to do with driver's licenses. States have agreements to honor each other's licenses.

[–] RupeThereItIs@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

No longer true with real ID.

[–] MouseKeyboard@ttrpg.network 5 points 2 months ago

R loves to make voting harder under the auspices of “fraud prevention”.

They say, while their supporters are the ones committing all of the fraud.

[–] barsquid@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago

I have never understood why you need to register ahead of time to vote in US. It seems like an unnecessary blocker.

No, you absolutely do understand perfectly.

[–] bartvbl@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yes, it's utterly stupid. One reason I can point to is that the US never really had a national ID system. The social security number is a hack to get something along the lines of an ID, but it's not reliable enough to make it viable for elections.

[–] morphballganon@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

It's not "stupid." To call it stupid is to gloss over the fact that it's a calculated, deliberate, malicious tactic of targeted voter disenfranchisement meant to swing elections.

[–] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's because a national ID requirement is illegal.

I can't find the law because I now suck at searching and searching has gotten worse.

[–] RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Social security number is a national id isn't it?

[–] SuperIce@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Technically, the SSN is not and was never supposed to be used for identification.

[–] RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago

That went really well, excellent plan, no flaws in sight.

[–] Lyrl@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago

It's intended as a "this is the John Doe I'm talking about" kind of id, not a "the person with this card is John Doe" kind of id.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We don't have national ID or election systems. So with early voting it would be legitimately possible to register and vote multiple times in multiple places without the deadline.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why would your SSN not suffice?

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

The SSN isn't an identification. In fact, it specifically says on the back of mine that it is not to be used for identification.

It was intended intended to do one thing only: track lifetime earnings to determine retirement benefits. The thing is since there isn't a national ID everyone is required to get, businesses started using it to track people.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

gives all the smaller governmental departments(like the municipal courts) time to assimilate your info for future contacts like jury duty

[–] petersr@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Sounds like the least cynical answer I have gotten here.

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

it is, and if you notice the states that make it difficult, it's clearly the intent behind it as well. The goal is to make it hard for specific demographics to be able to vote because they very regularly vote in favor of the opposition of that state.