Editorials & Other Articles

riversedge

(70,239 posts) Thu Sep 24, 2015, 11:44 AM Sep 2015

50 years after the Voting Rights Act, a quarter of Americans are still not registered to vote.

http://www.thenation.com/article/how-automatic-voter-registration-can-transform-american-politics/

How Automatic Voter Registration Can Transform American Politics
50 years after the Voting Rights Act, a quarter of Americans are still not registered to vote.

By Ari BermanTwitter
September 22, 2015

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen displays cellphones and a paper form following the signing of California's new online voter registration bill.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen displays cellphones and a paper form following the signing of California’s new online voter registration bill. (AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli)

In July 1976, while appearing with civil-rights icon John Lewis, Jimmy Carter proposed automatically registering to vote every eligible American once they turned 18, which he said would “transform, in a beneficial way, the politics of our country.”

Carter’s ambitious plan never became law, but 39 years later, states like Oregon and California are embracing automatic voter registration as a bold new voting reform, potentially adding millions of new voters to the rolls. It’s a trend that warrants more attention, especially as the country celebrates National Voter Registration Day today.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and National Voter Registration Act of 1993 enfranchised millions of new voters. After passage of the VRA, for example, the number of black registered voters in the South increased from 31 percent to 73 percent. Despite these landmark laws, 51 million Americans—1 in 4 eligible voters—are still not registered to vote. “Among eligible voters, some 30 percent of African Americans, 40 percent of Hispanics, 45 percent of Asian Americans, and 41 percent of young adults (age 18-24), were not registered to vote in the historic 2008 election,” according to Demos.

During the 2012 election, the United States ranked 31st of 34 developed countries in voter turnout. Yet 84 percent of registered voters cast ballots. The US doesn’t have a voter turnout problem; we have a voter registration problem. Our turnout is abysmal because so many eligible voters are not even registered to vote. ...................

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50 years after the Voting Rights Act, a quarter of Americans are still not registered to vote. (Original Post) riversedge Sep 2015 OP

You can lead Ichigo Kurosaki Sep 2015 #1

In 23 countries it's illegal to NOT vote. If we could only lead our Congress to this body of water. valerief Sep 2015 #3

Why do we have to be like other countries? Ichigo Kurosaki Sep 2015 #4

The uninformed vote now. -none Sep 2015 #5

One solution, term limits. Ichigo Kurosaki Sep 2015 #6

Then we fill Congress up with newbies that don't know anything and will be easily duped by their -none Sep 2015 #7

This is a great article Gothmog Sep 2015 #2

Since '64 things have changed. Igel Sep 2015 #8

Ichigo Kurosaki

(167 posts)

1. You can lead

Reply to riversedge (Original post)

Thu Sep 24, 2015, 12:02 PM

Sep 2015

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

Unlike us here there are a lot of people who don't really care about voting.
And I'm fine with that since those that don't care will not spend the time to learn the issues so they would just be picking a name at random or one they have heard before without knowing what they stand for.

I personally do not like the thought of someone making their choice like blindly throwing a dart at a list of names.

valerief

(53,235 posts)

3. In 23 countries it's illegal to NOT vote. If we could only lead our Congress to this body of water.

Reply to Ichigo Kurosaki (Reply #1)

Thu Sep 24, 2015, 01:30 PM

Sep 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/06/what-if-it-were-illegal-not-to-vote/

Even though there's social pressure to vote in the United States, no one makes you go to the polls.

Other countries, however, take a heavier hand. According to the CIA World Factbook, 23 countries have compulsory voting, including Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Peru and Australia.

Some nations, such as Italy or the Netherlands, have mandatory voting but don't enforce it. And even in countries that do enforce it, the penalties are typically modest. Australia's punishments start with a AUS$20 (about $20.87 in the United States) fine, and scale up from there for repeat non-voters.

But studies suggest that even that amount for a fine changes the electorate considerably. One study found that in the 1996 election in Australia, compulsory voting reduced the vote share of the victorious right-wing Liberal Party/National Party coalition by five points. Another study looked at the interwar period (1918-1941), when Australia first embraced compulsory voting, and found that the policy benefited the left-wing Labor Party by about seven to nine points.

Ichigo Kurosaki

(167 posts)

4. Why do we have to be like other countries?

Reply to valerief (Reply #3)

Thu Sep 24, 2015, 01:41 PM

Sep 2015

Forcing everyone to vote just means that the uninformed will be voting.
I don't like the thought of a bunch of people just pulling the R lever because their dad does/did.

Does being a Democrat mean that we FORCE people to do something they don't want/care to?
To me that is just as bad as the Repukes trying to FORCE their ideals down my throat.

-none

(1,884 posts)

5. The uninformed vote now.

Reply to Ichigo Kurosaki (Reply #4)

Thu Sep 24, 2015, 04:23 PM

Sep 2015

Just look at Congress.

Ichigo Kurosaki

(167 posts)

6. One solution, term limits.

Reply to -none (Reply #5)

Thu Sep 24, 2015, 05:05 PM

Sep 2015

Make it harder/expensive for Big Biz/special interests to keep them in their pocket.
If they (elected ones) know they can't be there for life then maybe they will actually look out for what is best for us little people.

-none

(1,884 posts)

7. Then we fill Congress up with newbies that don't know anything and will be easily duped by their

Reply to Ichigo Kurosaki (Reply #6)

Thu Sep 24, 2015, 05:22 PM

Sep 2015

staff and lobbyists. To say nothing about tossing out someone good reasonable honest legislators.
Term limits won't fix the root problem, just shift it somewhere else.

We first need to clean up our banana republic election system. Make it honest again, like when the exit polls mirrored the actual results. You know like before 2000?

Gothmog

(145,288 posts)

2. This is a great article

Reply to riversedge (Original post)

Thu Sep 24, 2015, 12:09 PM

Sep 2015

Igel

(35,317 posts)

8. Since '64 things have changed.

Reply to Gothmog (Reply #2)

Thu Sep 24, 2015, 06:42 PM

Sep 2015

Not just register X number of days before election day and then vote during that one day at your prescribed precinct while polls were open.

Motor voter. Electronic registration. Registration by mail.

Voting by mail. Extended voting. Early voting. Voting anywhere in the county, not just at your precinct.

You know what? For all that, the electorate as a percent of the population has decreased. Not by a lot. But it's decreased.

100% voter registration will do one thing: It will make those fired up by some last minute issue able to go and vote even though two weeks before they had plans to blow off the election. Instead of voting on a range of issues, they'll be voting based on emotion on a single issue which, it might well turn out, was based on insufficient information.

Nov. 2 to the story hits. Elections on 11/4. And then on 11/5 it'll turn out things were confused in the press reports. Oops. He-he.

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