A lightweight news hub to help decentralize the fediverse load: mirror and discuss headlines here so the giant instance communities aren’t a single choke-point.
Rules:
One potential hurdle for implementation is the lack of new funding in the bill for local governments and election offices, which would be responsible for enforcing its provisions.
American politics loves unfunded mandates. The result will be the lack of ease of voting for as many people as possible.
Wait....I had to show my driver's license to vote....it isn't like that everywhere?
nope, not in california, most blue states dont do that kind of voter intimidation. for first registering you might need to show some proof, just not voting in general.
You have to show something, but it's basically any piece of paper with your name on it along with a sworn statement that you are only voting once and in the correct district. It doesn't have to be ID specifically.
and mandating a form of photo identification at polling places.
They don't require ID currently?
How are they checking the identity of voters?
Before the ID requirement, you simply used your voter registration card. You'd walk up to the reception counter, give them your card, and they'd verify your address (which was not on the card), and hand you the ballot.
Now they scan your state ID and look up your voter registration data. If the Internet connection goes down, they have printouts of the voter rolls (for that polling location) to use to match the ID to the person's registration.
The ID doesn't really add much, honestly. It's not like the people behind the counter even look at your face to verify the photo. They're literally just scanning it in to make sure it's a valid ID... Which is just as valid as verifying your voter registration card.
Let's say you show up to vote as someone else (voter fraud). You need to have that person's voter registration card and know their address. You also need to show up at the correct voting venue and make sure to vote before they did or you'll be caught. Everyone gets marked as having voted the moment they get their card checked.
Then later, when the actual voter shows up to vote (with a legit voter registration card), the people at the counter will notice something is wrong. The fraudulent voter will now be investigated.
It's possible for this to happen but for it to happen at scale is way too complicated and would require way too many resources to pull off. The people that try it are risking too much for too little.
That's why most voting fraud that happens is tiny and when people are caught it usually turns out that they're... Mentally challenged. Like MAGA people...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fraud_in_the_United_States
in red states, blue states dont do this.
What I'm hearing is, they aren't checking the IDs of voters. They haven't, and by your words, they won't.
The more I learn about your voting system the more I just don't understand.
it's a really half-assed federal system, honestly surprised it lasted this long.