• cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I still don’t understand why people have to register to vote. Everyone should automatically be registered to vote.

      • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Honestly I don’t

        I live in a country where everybody who is entitled to vote, gets a vote in their mail box and a dedicated place where they can go and vote. They can even send in their votes before hand or vote in the local library.

        I don’t see how one side or the other or any can benefit by low voting percentages

        • Soggy@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Republicans do better in elections with low voter turnout because old white people vote at disproportionately high rates.

          • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            But it has always been like this no? Have Americans ever not had to register to vote? Why cant all just be automatically registered to vote?

            • Soggy@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Republicans are currently making it harder for left-leaning populations to vote, by closing polling stations in urban areas or opposing vote-by-mail. Automatic voter registration is being actively resisted. That is “why”.

              Voter registration became a thing in the 1800s to limit the voice of immigrants, adopted state by state.

              Oregon first, and about a dozen other states since, have made registration automatic when you get a driver’s license or state ID.

              So yeah it’s pretty much always been like this.

        • Resand@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Central registered of all citizens with ID-number. I’m pretty sure your nation has it, as does mine. So the government knows where you live, and where you can vote. If you move these things are automatically updated. So it’s easy to make sure everyone can vote in the “correct” ballots ect.

          None of this is true with the US