Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)

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ELI5 why do people in USA need to register to vote? (self.eli5)

submitted 2 months ago by verstra to c/[email protected]

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I'd expect the state to have a list of all its citizens and their basic personal info (age) which could be used to determine their eligibility for voting. In my country, we get a "invitation" to the vote, with your voter station and info on how to change it.

Instead, I'm seeing posts about USA's "voter rolls", which are sometimes purged, which prevents people from voting. Isn't this an attack on the voting system and democracy itself?

So why doesn't USA have a list of voters? Are they stupid?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Canadian here.

if you moved across your country, how would you vote in those local elections?

I would literally just show up to the polls on election day and show a piece of ID and something (utility bill, etc) with my new address and tell them I want to vote. Or I would bring a friend and they would sign a statement affirming I'm who I say I am.

You may not see it that way, cause that "registration" may be dual purposed with some other act (like getting a new drivers license)

This is the problem, the list of citizens, and list of registered voters should not be two completely separate lists. You should be able to vote no matter what if you are a citizen

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There is no "list of citizens", though. Well, there are things like social security, but they aren't tied to where you live the way that voting has to be.

I would literally just show up to the polls on election day and show a piece of ID and something (utility bill, etc) with my new address and tell them I want to vote.

This is broadly how it works here, it's just that most states don't want to do it same-day since that bogs down the lines on election day.

My point is that "registering to vote" just means proving that you can vote, and no matter where you live, you have to do that somehow.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There is no “list of citizens”, though. Well, there are things like social security, but they aren’t tied to where you live the way that voting has to be.

There is no need to have it tied to where you live though, which is the point. Every other democracy in the world is content to verify a) citizenship and b) proof of address independently, but it's just the states where you need to register ahead of time to a 3rd list specific for voting and remain vigilant that you haven't been purged off that list come election day

it’s just that most states don’t want to do it same-day since that bogs down the lines on election day

It literally doesn't though. 95% of the people at every poll station are known ahead of time because they still live at the same address they last procured government services from - they can move through the line at the speed it takes to verify their name and cross it off the list. Each station has a separate line for day-of voters, and it takes 2-3 minutes to get set up at most (I've done it at least a half dozen times)

My point is that “registering to vote” just means proving that you can vote, and no matter where you live, you have to do that somehow

This isn't disputed, the OPs question above is why it needs to be explicitly done as a separate step in the states. It's the only place in the world where stopping 2-3 ineligible voters from casting a ballot seemingly takes a greater priority than allowing dozens of eligible american citizens from participating in democracy

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It's not usually explicitly done as a separate step in the States. When most people move, they just check a box to register to vote when they are getting their new ID.

The reason that it can be a separate step is that there's nothing requiring you to have an ID if you don't want to have one, and the people most likely to not have an ID are poor/homeless/otherwise disadvantaged. That's when you need to explicitly provide your local election people with some kind of proof of identification and proof of address.