I’ve done that literally 20 times now and they keep sending it.
Straight to the recycle bin then?
Voter registries sound complicated in the US.
Every year when I file my Canadian income tax return I provide my residence info to CRA (Canadian equivalent of the IRS). There is a section in the tax return where I can give permission to the CRA to provide my name and address to Elections Canada which manages our federal voter registries. That information is then shared by them with provinces and municipalities for their voter registries. Do you have something comparable in the US through the IRS?
Still have to show a proof of residence (e. g. drivers license) at the polling booth along with my voter registration card but the system seems to work. It is certainly not a political football here.
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I don’t think we have one of these. We have 50 of them, so on our state taxes (note some states have no income tax) we could note it for the state rolls.
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It’s not the BOE.
It’s the list brokers.
For some unknown reason I personally have been IDed as a southern CA real estate agent. My text messages overflow with obvious RE offers, come ons, and helpful ways I can improve my listings for just a few dollars. No amount of replying STOP is effective. My guess is you are going to have a hard time talking sense to MailChimp.
I’m not talking about your anecdote, unless you are claiming that your 10+year outdated voter registrations led to actual votes, which I dont think you have done.
I suppose I am asking for actual solutions to actual problems that aren’t going to immediately have holes poked throughout.
Well, you should. It is quite important.
Fake IDs and other things could be used to cast fraudulent votes even with clean voter lists. There will just be another boogeyman of “problems” needing “solutions” that accidentally happen to also restrict people from voting generally.
In my state they just ask for a name and address. The only checking they do is to see if your signature matches the one on file.
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If IDs really prevented voter fraud, wouldn’t we see massive fraud in states that don’t require ID? Doesn’t the fact that we don’t see this pretty much prove that, while refinement is possible, the system works fine?
Of course the Republican line would be “Well how can you catch fraud if you’re willingly letting it happen so that illegals can vote?” They’re aware that fraud isn’t a significant problem, but will always move the goalposts or disingenuously challenge anything contradicting fraud.
To them, somebody who traveled hundreds or thousands of miles, may have spent their life savings, and risked their life in an illegal crossing to make it to the Land of Freedom and establish themselves in relative prosperity will risk that to add 1 vote to the hundreds of millions cast, risking deportation if caught.
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I think in some states, the voter registries are maintained at the county level. There are likely a few hundred registries.
What we do have at the federal level is the Motor Voter law – states are required to have a mechanism in place for citizens to register to vote when they get/renew their drivers licenses or state IDs.
In Connecticut, I think there’s a checkbox in the drivers license paperwork that will generate a voter registration record. I remember reading that in Texas, they comply with Motor Voter by just having the generic voter registration applications in the DMV offices.
Having an option to generate voter registries off of tax filings would be good, but as noted, not every state has income tax, not everybody is required to make a tax filing, taxes aren’t necessarily linked to residency – people who work in one or more states other than where they reside may be required to file state tax returns in the nonresident states.
Plus, social conservatives (now mostly Republicans) have a history of opposing measures that make it “too easy” to register to vote.
I should have clarified that the income tax form is just one option to get registered as a Canadian voter. There are many other ways. That is necessary as, in the US, there are substantial numbers of prospective voters who do not file income tax returns.
Unlike the US though, there are no roadblocks thrown up by any Canadian political party to needlessly complicate voter registration or voting.
It’s just “common sense” for someone to prove who they are before they vote. But clearly if a registration exists on a property 10 years after transfer of ownership, that suggests the potential for millions of illegally cast votes.
For me, it seems like there is a lot of effort spent fixing this problem. Is it a top 5 issue that needs to be “fixed”? I dont think it is for the average American.
Americans generically favor Democrats, but demographically, Democrats have the lower turnout groups. The effect of raising the cost threshold to vote will favor Republicans. The conclusion should be obvious - the real point of a voter ID law is to give Republicans an edge.
Similar arguments can be made with Democrats and mail in voting - they know they gain an edge any time the process to vote becomes easier. Reasonable arguments on this can be made regarding the 2020 presidential election. What I would say to that…get a better argument for why Republicans should win an election. More people voting is a fundamentally good thing regardless of who “wins”.
Illinois allows you to register to vote at the DMV. If you say yes, it sends info to the proper county accordingly. If you’re already registered to vote, then it’s on the county to update its voter rolls to reflect your correct address.
That’s the reason ERIC exists.
Just to nitpick – when given the choice of D or R, Americans in general have a slight preference for D…but it bears remembering that a significant proportion of those expressing a preference would prefer “neither of the above” if it were perceived a viable choice.
D-preferring Americans are overrepresented among groups likely to be apathetic regarding voting, who have issues getting to polling places, who have issues registering to vote due to challenges obtaining documentation or being tripped up by variant spellings of their names, and who are disenfranchised in some states due to prior convictions. (Something like 1-in-8 African-American men are ineligible to vote due to past convictions. I’m aware of one southern city where that proportion is closer to 20-25%.)
But the fact that increasing voter registration and poll access tends to help D politicians and hurt R politicians definitely explains some of the antics when it comes to laws and regs surrounding voter registration and conduct of elections.
If the list brokers are getting randos registered without their knowledge or consent then the problem is much worse than I realized. That said, I strongly STRONGLY do not think that’s what is happening.
This is official elections mail coming from the BOE. And every election we get 4: mine (valid), STBX’s (valid), prior owner husband (invalid) and prior owner wife (invalid).
Sure, but those would be nonresident returns.
Despite my disgust for Trump, I have to admit he has been very successful in advancing his objectives.
The general acceptance of the disinformation that he and his allies spread is one of his more concerning successes. I wish there was an easy way to counter this but the only solution seems to be a better education system so that folks are taught to be more critical of what they read. Having said that, human nature is such that you believe what you want to believe.
Republicans are skilled at “reframing the narrative”.
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They are great at playing the imaginary victim.
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