USian Mid-term elections - Here we go again!
- Thread starter IglooDame
- Start date
-
- Tags
- democracygobrrrr
There are two problems : how do you prove you've ticked off the right name, and how do you deal with absentee votes. Because the US doesn't have a national ID card system there's a debate on which ID should be accepted or not. And absentee voting/mail in voting needs checks to make sure the right person voted. People also need to know in advance which polling station is theirs, so it needs to be organized.
Zardnaar
Deity
Voting here is piss easy you pretty much have to go out of your way not to vote.
Early stations open two weeks before election day plus you can post votes in. Every suburb pretty much has a voting station on election day. Outs is about a 5 minute walk away.
Voting cards are mailed out present that it's got a barcode. They scan that you go off tonvite put dot in circle for who you want to vote for.
You need ID to vote?
You need ID yes, to check that you are who you say you are and tick off the right name on the list. But everyone in France has one so it's not really a condition for voting. The voting card that people receive every few years (or when they change their address) on the other hand is recommanded but not mandatory.
We don't have a national ID in Australia either (we are also a federation so the main photo ID, drivers licenses, are state IDs). When I go and vote I just tell them my name and address and they cross me off. In between elections the electoral commission works constantly to keep the roll updated with everyone's name and address.
At elections we have postal voting and all day early in-person voting for multiple weeks. On election day there's provisional/declaration votes if you're not able to be confirmed on the roll, there's interstate voting on election day at many booths if you're outside your state. If you're outside your electorate but inside your state there's absent voting at every polling place on election day.
You also don't need to go to a particular assigned polling station to do ordinary voting, you can ordinary vote any polling place in your district on the day. I don't know why so many countries assign people an exact place they have to vote, that seems constricting. (And what if the place doesn't have a barbecue onsite!!??)
It's an administrative capacity thing. Get a single national electoral roll that is easy to enroll in, and is automatically updated from tax, drivers licence, medicare etc data. Whatever's available. Letting every state and county run things themselves is seemingly terrible for good access to enrollment and ballots.
If everyone accessing the franchise is genuinely an administrative priority, voting can be made something the government bureaucracy works hard to ensure is accessible by every means possible, as easily as possible.
As opposed to enrollment and voting being something blocked by red tape, hostile laws and bad databases. A key problem in the US is passive and active voting and enrollment barriers are so frequently treated as a legitimate political tactic, seemingly to help achieve and maintain minority rule.
Last edited:
No it isn't, because as per the running theme of the conversation it benefits those that define illegal (which also includes people very keen on defining "illegal" to be more than it legally is right now).
You can completely ignore the real-world context if you want and pretend this is a cut-and-dry issue of "illegal is bad", but I don't think you are unaware, it's more that it's not helpful to your argument to recognise it.
That seems strange as hell. So anyone can go to any polling station in your district, claim to be you, vote, and nothing stops them ?
Why would they? Double voting is super easy to identify and investigate.
Basically I have no idea why you're saying that. If someone has voted and shouldn't have you can't pinpoint to their personal vote and take it out of the box, so there's no way to correct things.
Edit : with mandatory voting you avoid problems like knowing your neighbor is out of town and can't vote and going to the polling station to vote in their place.
I say it because we know it basically does not happen. When they reconcile the rolls post election they usually find a few dozen instances of double votes, nearly all related to elderly people of reduced mental capacity who likely voted by one method (postal, special aged care mobile teams, etc) then forgot and voted again on election day (potentially by being taken by a relative who didn't know they'd voted). Anyone who did it deliberately/maliciously would be charged obviously.
Also by people not being enormous weirdos I guess.
This is also avoided by that person being able to vote by several different means even if they're not at home that day.
Also by people not being enormous weirdos I guess.
Last edited:
UK is much the same. Don't have all these elaborate precautions some countries do and yet don't have any evidence of widespread electoral fraud.
Sadly our government is jumping on the voter suppression bandwagon. The poor and young tend to be the groups most hit by these measures to prevent a non-existent problem.
"Everybody votes" is so engrained inside you that you don't realize that if that person doesn't care about the vote they might be out of town and not vote by a different mean. Your electoral system is vulnerable but your collective mentality around voting seems to make it really difficult to game the system.
I personally know many people who don't vote sometimes despite it taking like 5mn and them being interested in politics. Fraud would be so easy if your system was in place here...
I personally know many people who don't vote sometimes despite it taking like 5mn and them being interested in politics. Fraud would be so easy if your system was in place here...
I still have bones to pick with the UK's restrictive rules on voting from away from home of course!
Mustn't be enough sausages for sale at polling places lol
Nah, simple plurality voting with a two round system seems pretty designed to have lower turnouts. Not only do people have to show up twice in rapid succession, it makes not showing up and voting in one or the other of those rounds a pretty common political stance. Why vote in the 1st round if your candidate has no chance of making the second round, why vote in the second if your candidate didn't make the runoff.
Zardnaar
Deity
Dint think I've ever used ID to vote.
Anyway illegal voted here.
Multiple votes
Non citizens or residents (via fraid I guess?)
Anyone else not eligible to vote (via fraud).
Fraudulent voting is pretty much a non issue.
Anyway illegal voted here.
Multiple votes
Non citizens or residents (via fraid I guess?)
Anyone else not eligible to vote (via fraud).
Fraudulent voting is pretty much a non issue.
EnglishEdward
Deity
Tell us !
João III
King
Likely controversial opinion but I do not think high voter turnout, taken on its own merits, is necessarily a good thing. Mathematically, half the population is of below average intelligence and I'm not convinced average intelligence is too impressive either. A lot of dumb people vote, often against their own interests. Too often it seems elections are decided by ignorant and/or uninformed voters. Not looking to cast aspersions at people on this forum who vote, just my take on high voter turnout.
For reference, I do not vote.
For reference, I do not vote.
Last edited:
So as supposed to investing in education, deradicalising partisan or extremist rhetoric in mainstream parties (i.e. the Overton window), etc . . . your solution is "everyone I think isn't smart enough doesn't get a vote"?
What if you were deemed as not being smart enough, in the hypothetical scenario this were employed where you live?
