With the big election in the USA coming closer, I often read the terms “registered voter” or appeals to “register to vote”. How does that work?
Here in Germany you simply get a letter a few weeks before each election, telling you which voting location you are assigned to and on the election day you simply go there, show your ID (Personalausweis) and you can vote.
Why isn’t it that easy in the USA?
In: Other
It essentially puts you on a list of people who can vote. Since our elections are ran by the states it’s different from state to state. In almost every state it keeps a record of your address so the state can link you to a polling place, (although some states allow you to vote anywhere), it keeps track of things like felony status in states where that prevents you from voting, in some states it can be how you request to vote by mail, in some states it’s where you’ll input your ID information if that’s required.
I’m in Massachusetts for example which is a fairly liberal state that makes it really easy to vote. For me the process was going online inputting my address and some other info in a website that took about two minutes then getting a notification I was registered a few seconds later. It’s also how you sign up for the draft as well if you’re a man here. From their I’m registered for every election in the future as well, however I can get in trouble if I move and don’t update my address in the system as it would allow me to vote in local elections even if I was no longer a resident of that city.
Y’know how the US has this whole “freedom” propaganda stuff going on where they think they’re more free than anyone. Well that goes all the way down to voting. They are free to not vote. So free that they have to register *TOO* vote. Coincidentally, the less people vote, the more likely one particular party will get in so they never push the whole “it’s good to vote” angle, and put in roadblocks to try to get people to stay at home instead.
In other countries, like Germany, it’s a “here’s how you vote, here’s what you do, vote if you want” thing.
In Australia, it’s a “you will vote. It’s in your best interest. You will have a democracy sausage”.
Because the only thing that is automatic in the states is the draft. Everything else like taxes and voting are way more complicated than they need to be and not automatic registration.
Additionally it’s a carry over from our past with racism as certain groups don’t want non-whites to vote or be able to vote.
I personally think it’s stupid and it would make sense if our voting practices looked more like our European counterparts.
Some addition to this:
>show your ID (Personalausweis) and you can vote.
because some (US) people on reddit got hung up on that last time I mentioned that.
As far as I can remember here in germany, I never actually needed to show my ID during voting. You just need to show the vote notice. It tells you to bring your ID, but in fact it will only ever be needed if there is any confusion about your identity, or you lost your vote notice.
The US issues IDs to non-citizens, there was a recent article about Oregon’s program to automatically register voters based on driver’s licenses registering some ineligible voters ([link](https://www.opb.org/article/2024/09/13/noncitizens-registered-oregon-error/)). Also not everyone has IDs, getting an ID is typically a function of the state’s driver licensing facilities. The elderly might not need a license and the poor might not be able to spend a day away from work to get one. So we have a registration process that varies by state to declare yourself as a voter. It’s a free and easy process, but still a step that many states require.
There are also political reasons. The republican party is frequently accused of making it more difficult to vote. This includes limited polling locations/hours, laws about presenting identification, laws about registration timelines, and others. Elections are a state level function with limited oversight from the federal government so all but the most egregious restrictions are unchallenged.
In Germany there are mandatory registry offices (Einwohnermeldeämter), in the USA there is no such thing. This is why it is more difficult in the USA.
In Germany, every citizen and legal resident must have a government-issued photo ID and have their place of residence registered with the local authorities. That creates an official database of who is allowed to vote on what and where based on citizen/permanent resident/limited resident status and district of primary residence. The USA do not have such a system, certainly not in a uniform nationwide manner, so all that data has to be collected prior to an election.
To be an optimist about it,
Not to get into the politics about it, but for me personally, it would be very easy for someone to vote as me before I unregistered myself.
My state has very lenient rules on voting, to the point of all I need to do is just tell them my name and address. I tell them this info, they look through their book and give me my personal sticker to use on the machine to register my unique vote. This is an acceptable amount of proof to show i am who i say i am. This would prevent most other people from being victims of impersonation.
For example:
How would they know if I had already voted or not? They could show up to vote and I already had, in which case they would be pulled aside to be required to show further proof and eventually be caught. Or if they saw someone that knew me and noticed they were impersonating me.
I admit my personal example is not common but I do believe it shows the faults in this system even though they are rare.
Everyone in my life knew I didn’t vote. Anyone that was extremist enough to steal my vote would be able to find my address and voting location (all of this is public knowledge). So the only thing truly preventing the people in my life from stealing my vote is guilt and potential punishments (things criminals don’t usually care about, especially politcal extremists).
So for me personally I just unregistered myself as a voter. If I ever feel the need to vote again in the future I can register again. In my example, if the only thing that changed was being automatically registered, perhaps there would be more instances of this but who knows. Now instead of my sticker just sitting in a binder every election with the possibility of some extremely rare occurrence of someone using it as their own, it’s just not in that binder anymore.
Once again there’s way more layers to this topic in America. I just chose to take the most optimistic approach to your question while still providing an honest example. Nothing in my example was false or exaggerated. I acknowledged it’s incredibly rare. This is such a heavily debated topic though that people tell me I’m lying or that it just can’t happen based on statistics. Keep in mind that the statistics are invisible unless people get caught.
And then you have many different views on how easy it should be to be able to register/vote because we want it to be secure but not secure enough that it prevents people from being able to do so.
So like I said many others chose to go into that side of it, but I tried my best to give you a different yet still honest side to it.
This is bonkers.
In Poland, every citizen is automatically eligible to vote, at a polling station near last registered place of residence (usually a local public school, or government building) – unless you wish to make other arrangements, like voting in different than default district, mail-in ballot, and in special cases – voting by proxy and for especially sick or elderly, they literally bring in voting urn to you.
How the fuck can you have a functional democracy system, if people have to jump through hoops just to be able to exercise their franchise?
Just enroll everyone automatically, it’s not like government doesn’t have this data already – if they want to make use of it – good for them, if not, the ballot remains blank.
“Country of freedom”, my ass.
>What’s a “registered voter”?
Someone who has registered to vote.
> Why isn’t it that easy in the USA?
Because every state is allowed to pick its own voting rules.
Latest Answers