Do Americans realise how absolutely insane the very concept of “purging a voter registration list” is? You have to *register to vote*? What are you even talking about?
Are you a citizen? Then you should automatically get a vote. There isn’t anything to administer. You live there. The government serves you; not you it. Voting isn’t supposed to be a privilege, or reward.
The obvious abuse vector that any system other than “all citizens vote” becomes is astounding.
“Well what about XyZ?”
Did I stutter? *all* citizens. You all pay taxes, you all live together, choices made by gov effect all of you. So you all get a say. Automatically. Nothing should make any persons voice not count. Yes that includes criminals. ALL get a vote.
For a self proclaimed world leading democracy, so many of the systems in play seem very far removed from that bold claim and much more “keep the current rich white guys in power” encoded in the system as a whole.
@damkina @mattwilcox in GB local authorities maintain electoral rolls, which list voters at an address, and can be quite painlessly updated via a central website (using what's analogous to a ‘society security number’).
Assuming you don't move (or change name) you won't have to ever do anything, and at least once a year the local elections officer sends a list to each address of the voters recorded at that address, along with their contact details et al, as a reminder should any corrections be needed.
VoterID is sadly a whole other problem, though still more manageable than in the US.
@kcoyle @purple @damkina @mattwilcox How it's done in Canada is that information is updated/harmonized with your tax filings.
While there are still bobbles in practice -- and about four ways to correct them both pre-voting and at your polling station on the day of, for all kinds of situations, including homelessness -- file your taxes annually and you're all good by and large. Current address, name changes, if someone died, the works.
Source: Have poll clerked multiple elections at all levels.
@leahbobet @kcoyle @damkina @mattwilcox yeah as I alluded to we primary use NI numbers for maintaining electoral rolls — which is basically a tax number* and is automatically issued to you age ~16
Sadly it's not as joined up as yours sounds to be, but still things like death should be picked up in typical cases
*: Yes I've skipped over quite some nuances and yes it's quite confusing that the UK of GB & NI includes a country called NI whilst also having part of taxation called NI and bizarrely the tax came first
@kcoyle @damkina @mattwilcox in theory death is handled automatically via a death certificate being issued, and as I said you do have to manually add/remove addresses (you can actually have more than one) :)
And hence the at least annual letter — giving households the chance to notice and rectify mistakes, including unnoticed deaths or permanent address changes
Not quite sure what you mean by ‘state mandated identifies’?
@damkina @mattwilcox 4/ In the end, the goal in democracy is to have a fair, but popular election - we want to get as many people to vote as possible. Policies that seem normal in the US are outrageous if you look at it from this perspective.
And if that sounds weird, in Belgium you're forced to vote - if you don't, you get a fine.
Matt Wilcox
Damkina
purple: licenced to sticky plaster
kcoyle checking the perimeter
Leah Bobet
redzimski.dev