Author Topic: Politics  (Read 511123 times)

Bondo

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6510 on: March 18, 2020, 09:10:41 AM »
I think in Colorado (where they have universal mail-in/drop-off) they actually count my ballot before election day if I've already submitted it. It seems foolish to miss the opportunity to process as they come rather than be overloaded on election day itself. I guess the concern is preliminary results would leak and affect subsequent voting?

Regarding automatic registration (which yes, is different than mandatory voting) seems reasonable enough. North Dakota has a different take on it which is no voter registration, which has somewhat the same effect I think. Not sure how these things are handled on the systems side, obviously they still have a (tax or license) database of everyone to verify against. I know there are some civil liberties people who are fearful of the idea of a government database of all people (though we approximate it between Social Security and Census) but I think having that database tied to biometrics would be pushing it.

jdc

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6511 on: March 18, 2020, 09:41:05 AM »
Maybe a better question, is what is the point of registering to vote? Is it to determine what ever city/county//state that your vote would be counted?  If that is the case, why not just do away with registration and set a rule that defines where you vote is counted and then every eligible voter by the law can vote or not?


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Bondo

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6512 on: March 18, 2020, 10:12:12 AM »
The latter is basically what North Dakota is doing by having no registration. The main reason they do registration is to have an opportunity to have you prove your eligibility in advance (with time to remedy any missing information) rather than potentially be left with a provisional ballot on election day that may or may not be counted.

Now, we don't actually have to worry about people voting illegally. It is actually very easy to investigate/prosecute and individual votes rarely matter, so there is not a lot of incentive to break that law. So arguably we are doing too much to force people to prove up their eligibility because each barrier is going to discourage some number of eligible voters.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6513 on: March 19, 2020, 04:42:29 AM »
You need to register so they know if you can/should vote, and in Australia's case if you did vote (well at least turn up and a polling station and get crossed off). Also in Australia an independent committee (or group) determines electoral boundaries and based on registrations and voting patterns update the boundaries regularly to ensure fairer regions. For example to ensure there are not too many or too few people in a particular region.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6514 on: March 19, 2020, 06:02:02 AM »
You need to register so they know if you can/should vote, and in Australia's case if you did vote (well at least turn up and a polling station and get crossed off). Also in Australia an independent committee (or group) determines electoral boundaries and based on registrations and voting patterns update the boundaries regularly to ensure fairer regions. For example to ensure there are not too many or too few people in a particular region.

What do you think about the requirement to vote?
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6515 on: March 19, 2020, 06:19:34 AM »
It is a great idea. Mandatory voting (well at least turning up to vote) is a great thing. First and most importantly it makes it harder to disenfranchise voters. Second it is a very (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) small obligation for the privilege of living in a democracy. Having to turn up to vote less than once a year is not a burden. When you look at the millions who have died for the right to vote, to not vote is to spit in their faces and laugh at their sacrifice. If you are living in a country that fought for that right it makes not voting a worse insult.

Ok, I may be a little overly passionate about the topic.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6516 on: March 19, 2020, 06:56:06 AM »
It's OK, we see eye-to-eye on this. I think in the U.S.A, we start with automatic registration, then go to mandatory voting. And I'm with all your reasoning, and will add: How legitimate can an elected official be in a democracy where only a relatively small percentage of eligible voters vote? I think people would be less likely to feel cynical about our elected officials if everyone had a say and they were truly the choice of the (majority of the) people.

How about your gun policies? How have you seen them evolve and change over time?
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6517 on: March 19, 2020, 07:09:33 AM »
I am getting old so, I remember the Port Arthur Massacre and the reaction to it. The gun policies here are okish, they could be stricter. We generally do not have the attachment to firearms that the US does, so overall it is not as big a problem. Still they do kill people in Australia every year.

After the 2 massacres in 1987 (Hoodle St and Queen St) in Melbourne I do not remember there being much in the way of law changes. In terms of changes it was the big change after Port Arthur and since then slow whittling back (or not enacting the agreed changes) of the gun restrictions.

Bondo

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6518 on: March 19, 2020, 08:09:39 AM »
I'd value access improvements (universal mail-in voting) ahead of mandatory voting. Would be awful to legally mandate it but not solve the problems that keep people from going. I could see mandatory voting being yet another way to criminalize being disadvantaged. Also, I care a lot about people who want to vote but can't, I care quite little about hearing from people who simply don't want to. They don't tend to have choate political views to begin with.

saltine

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Re: Politics
« Reply #6519 on: March 23, 2020, 07:36:40 PM »
Keith put this on Facebook so I'll drag it over here. To good not to share.

have we confirmed whether joe biden being dead will hurt his election chances in november?
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