Link: https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/
Warning: you will get texted so use your disposal number.
With all the news about citizens discovering their voter status has been lapsed, and new rules for being a voter, everyone should check.
But also, sometimes you forget. I have new neighbors who finished moving a month ago, and when I asked if they changed their mailing address and checked their voting status, we discovered they weren’t.
It is wild to me that in the US you’re not automatically registered to vote. The idea that you have to go through a manual process to exert one of your most basic constitutional rights is unfathomable to me.
Here when you turn 18 you can just vote. It’s that simple. No registration, no ticking a checkbox somewhere, you can simply go out there and vote the moment you’re 18.
I have a brother in Oregon, they auto register there.
It’s to prevent double voting. Because even federal elections are conducted by the individual states, there is no central register for who has already voted. There’s also early voting. So in theory one could vote on multiple states on the same election.
That’s the official reason, anyway.
Nothing about the US system is particularly geared to prevent double voting.
I get that you don’t have a federal register (something you should really fix tbh) but requiring manual registration when you could, oh idk, simply register people when they are born and then later automatically provide them a unique ID they can vote with? (I’m not even talking a government ID for the purposes of identifying yourself to law enforcement and stuff, I’m talking even just a voter ID for the sake of voting only)
Then have part of the number in that ID identify the state you’re from if you want to prevent crossing borders to double vote (kinda like how credit card numbers have that info on them).
It’s what they do here anyway, I’ve had an ID since I was like 4, and it’s with that document that I and everyone else votes.
Though I know the US is probably too anti-democratic for this and none of the parties in power want to change jack.
You just have to stop thinking the US is an actual democracy and everything will make sense (or rather you will understand why nothing makes sense)
In the USA many states work very hard to remove voters’ registration and voting locations so the folks they don’t want voting can’t place their votes.
We’re the oldest democracy in the world and as such are likely the most poorly designed.
Is Greece that bad politically?
Their comment is based on this criteria:
Countries are classified as democracies if they meet the following conditions:
Executive: The executive is directly or indirectly elected in popular elections and is responsible either directly to voters or to a legislature.
Legislature: The legislature (or the executive if elected directly) is chosen in free and fair elections.
Voting: A majority of adult men has the right to vote.
Source https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/countries-are-the-worlds-oldest-democracies/
For anyone interested: the prehistoric origin of democracy, ie before the Greeks, is also interesting
It’s been a proto-democracy for so long, that it has become a pseudo-democracy.
*Warning: you will get texted so use your disposable number
When I filled it out, email was required, phone was not.
Also, I use proton.me, and they have a really nice email masker, so you can generate throwaway email addresses, which is nice!
Wait what? Been using them for years and I didn’t know about this. TIL
It’s in the proton pass app. You only get so many in the free tier, but I did the premium, so it’s unlimited.
Edit spelling
Sorry non-Americans that the American political landscape is a shit show. I hope you’re enjoying the popcorn.
Do other countries eat popcorn?
Yes people of many/most countries do.
There are different ways, some places they put salt on, others put sugar on, cheese is also popular, and I think Americans use butter.Popping corn, coconut oil, salt, cumin, garlic powder, and chipotle powder.
Sounds great, maybe I should try to make them myself, instead of buying them for the microwave.
Is chipotle normally super hot, or is it just Jalapnos? I like it hot, but not SUPER hot.
Pro tip, buy bulk popping corn and you can just pop it in the microwave with a brown paper bag.
It’s riper, smoked jalapeno, so a bit hotter, but not by an order of magnitude.
I’ve witnessed people in America using salt, sugar, and butter. Sometimes all three. Personally I just do a dusting of nutritional yeast, it gives it a cheesy flavor.
We use it for making vegan queso. Never thought of putting it on popcorn.
I also like nutritional yeast on popcorn. Sometimes i will do curry powder instead.
Great for helping develop those yeast infections.
Sugar on popcorn? Wow!
I’ve been sprinkling spicy pepper flakes. Oil, spice, salt and pepper… Chefs kiss.
I had exchange friends in high school and they were as freaked out by salt as i was by sugar. I like kettle because it’s the best of both.
Kettle corn is a sweet popcorn. Have you tried it?
I was today years old when I learned that kettle corn is sugar-flavored. I just thought it was like… Pixie magic I dunno Im brain damaged from lead.
I’m down
While Amercia exports shit show, they offset it with another export: caramel popcorn
I’ve never been prouder to export our caramel freedom. 🫡
Wait, non-americans can’t vote?!!
And some Americans, depends on what state you live in and the shade of your skin.
If you’re in Michigan the secretary of state website has a registration check and sample ballots but other sites have sample ballots too. That allows time to look into candidates, review voting history, maybe watch an interview or two, before going to vote.
In the US, why do you need to register in order to vote? Doesn’t the government already know who can and cannot vote?
It’s only an issue because the voting laws aren’t federalized. Each state has its own criteria and register.
They also know precisely how much we owe in taxes, but instead of telling us and we pay it, they allowed a multi billion dollar industry to pop up around it and dictate tax law.
That’s not entirely true.
Not an US citizen. And in my country tax returns are certainly easier than the US. And our country also have a system in which people below certain money can just go to the tax agency and a government employee will do your tax return for you. But it cannot be fully automated, as the government doesn’t actually know 100% what do you own.
When they send you letters after asking for things is for you to give them paper documentation on why you deducted some things, or because they are inspecting some things a your deduction raised a flag. But it’s not like they just know precisely how much everyone should pay. If it were that easy tax returns would not be a thing as it is in most of the world.
They know my tax liability based on the income reported to the IRS by my employer - but you’re right that something they don’t necessarily know is the variety of valid deductions you might be eligible to take. Part of the process of filing is also calculating your tax liability though - and that part of it they know precisely and rather than TELLING you, you’re expected to determine your own liability and heaven help you if it’s wrong.
Well, that’s bad then.
Where I live its true that that part of the tax refund is already filled by our IRS equivalent. We have to fill the income that they don’t know about, and our deductions, which can be quite complex.
There is no real “centralized authority” for elections in the US
the american authorities don’t want everyone to vote so they require registrations for each election cycle and make doing so, as well as retaining that status until election day, as legally difficult as possible for the ones that they don’t want voting. they also take extra steps to make the act of voting itself as legally difficult as possible for those that they don’t want to voting.
the people who they don’t want voting are majority of registered voters so to further minimize their voting power; our authorities gerrymander political districts so that the people who they DO want voting have an artificially oversized voting impact compared to those who they DON’T want voting. nearly all of the conservative states use this approach with texas being one of the worse examples per the 2020 census.
Doesn’t the government already know who can and cannot vote?
I’m sure they do, but I think your confusion is coming from the assumption that those who are in charge of such things actually want people to vote.
This is the kind of election post that’s necessary.
I hate seeing “Remeber to go vote!” posts the week before an election as if that’s all you need to do. In most places, you need some kind of enrollment activity before they let you vote on the day, bring ID, etc etc.
Haha, get fucked. I already get flooded with emails and text messages because I made some donations in 2020. I’ll never participate by giving up contact info again. Good job poisoning the well, Dems (I donated to Bernie and other progressives, now I’m hounded by first Biden and then Harris campaigns).
Do they not let you unsubscribe?
I’ve treated them like spammers. I figure it’s best not to acknowledge that the account is actively read. But lately I’ve been toying with the idea of trying to unsubscribe from all of them en masse.
Why are you complaining about something you’ve never tried to stop? Either do something about it or STFU
I conflate a thing that sucks when you try to stop it with a thing that’s happening now. You can stfu too.
Its… just one click to stop the emails and texts…
Apparently vote.gov is a thing.
Doesn’t matter where you are in the world, vote if you can. I’m lucky enough to be in an area of the US where we get mail ballots, so the worst I have to deal with are right wingers complaining mail in ballots lead to fraud and then doing it themselves by dumping mail.
Imagine not just getting a letter explaining where to go vote on which day or if you prefer how to vote by post.
The USian system is so bizarre.
Here in Brazil everybody HAS to register when turning 18. The registration can get suspended if you miss an election without justification, but you get a fine for each time.
Voting is not a right, it’s a duty.
In some countries, you get a fine for failure to vote, and voting day is a mandatory paid day off of work. I wish the US would do that.
Here voting is always on a Sunday, and for those that work Sundays, the employer has to arrange so that they have time to go vote.
Absolutely!
It’s in the core fabric of the American system. Yet some conspiracy theory has made voting and the right to vote a difficult process.
“Warning: you will get texted so use your disposal number.”
Umm… What?
My thoughts exactly.
The phone number isn’t a required field and you can just use
user@example.comfor the email. The site tells you whether you’re registered right away, without the need to check any emails they send.You get an SMS so use a spam phone number
Looks like you can leave that field blank, and it’ll still work.
Warning: you will get texted so use your disposal number.
That field was optional. Just don’t put your phone number in at all.
Also it would have been weird if it came back and said I wasn’t registered when I’ve been getting my mail-in test ballots on time and everything.
when I asked if they changed their mailing address and checked their voting status, we discovered they weren’t.
They weren’t what?
Registered to vote, pedant.
Oh okay.
Only accepts US phone numbers, so probably not for US citizens living abroad.
Phone number is not required. I left it blank and it worked.
