Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)

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

submitted 1 month 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] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The goal is to disenfranchise black and hispanic voters by putting up barriers that are difficult for them to get past. Typically something like requiring photo ID to vote, and also making it so that getting that ID can only be done during hours where most people work means that the poor can't afford to take time off work to get them. This disproportionately affects black and hispanic people.

So it's not that they don't follow rules, it's that the rules are aimed at being hard for them to follow.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago

I totally get it, I hate following hard rules too. If we believe the system is stacked against us, why don't we just assume the whole thing is racist? Then we can just send one guy to get the driver's license, and we can pass off his photo as all of us!