If you live in Texas, make sure to register to vote! The deadline is coming up in a few days on the 7th. Note that for Texas you must register either in person or by mail, you cannot register online unlike most states


Find information on how to register to vote anywhere https://vote.gov/

  • petersr@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    I have never understood why you need to register ahead of time to vote in US. It seems like an unnecessary blocker. In Denmark you just show up on the day, state your SSN, show ID and get a ballot.

    • assaultpotato@sh.itjust.works
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      28 days ago

      You need to do it because it’s an unnecessary blocker. That’s the point. Poor people disproportionately struggle to jump through the hurdles in place for voting, and Poor people disproportionately vote D. R loves to make voting harder under the auspices of “fraud prevention”.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        28 days ago

        Also a lot of federal centralization didnt happen until the great depression, we are a federation of states meaning that historically it most shit was handled by the states and not in a states rights way but a who runs the local library sort of way. It was easier bureaucracatically as well allowing the feds to focus on other things.

        This is also why random bits of bureaucracy is not standardized across all states, like the DMV sure most states got the memo but then you have whatever the fuck Washington is doing.

        • RupeThereItIs@lemmy.world
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          28 days ago

          It really is also a states rights thing. The federal government, by design, has no say in how elections or driver’s licenses work.

          That they have stepped in to the driver’s license space is an overstep of their authority, honestly.

          The federal government is not the sovereign entity, the many states are.

          • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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            28 days ago

            That’s no longer true, the 14th amendment effectively made the constitution sovereign over all the states, period. That’s how incorporation works, otherwise states could have handgun bans again like in the 19th century.

          • shalafi@lemmy.world
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            27 days ago

            The feds have nothing to do with driver’s licenses. States have agreements to honor each other’s licenses.

      • MouseKeyboard@ttrpg.network
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        27 days ago

        R loves to make voting harder under the auspices of “fraud prevention”.

        They say, while their supporters are the ones committing all of the fraud.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      I have never understood why you need to register ahead of time to vote in US. It seems like an unnecessary blocker.

      No, you absolutely do understand perfectly.

    • bartvbl@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      Yes, it’s utterly stupid. One reason I can point to is that the US never really had a national ID system. The social security number is a hack to get something along the lines of an ID, but it’s not reliable enough to make it viable for elections.

      • morphballganon@lemmy.world
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        28 days ago

        It’s not “stupid.” To call it stupid is to gloss over the fact that it’s a calculated, deliberate, malicious tactic of targeted voter disenfranchisement meant to swing elections.

      • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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        28 days ago

        That’s because a national ID requirement is illegal.

        I can’t find the law because I now suck at searching and searching has gotten worse.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      We don’t have national ID or election systems. So with early voting it would be legitimately possible to register and vote multiple times in multiple places without the deadline.

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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          27 days ago

          The SSN isn’t an identification. In fact, it specifically says on the back of mine that it is not to be used for identification.

          It was intended intended to do one thing only: track lifetime earnings to determine retirement benefits. The thing is since there isn’t a national ID everyone is required to get, businesses started using it to track people.

    • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      gives all the smaller governmental departments(like the municipal courts) time to assimilate your info for future contacts like jury duty

    • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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      25 days ago

      it is, and if you notice the states that make it difficult, it’s clearly the intent behind it as well. The goal is to make it hard for specific demographics to be able to vote because they very regularly vote in favor of the opposition of that state.