• BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    11 hours ago

    Exactly. By the same reasoning, there is no reason to bar felons from voting, or even incarcerated citizens. Prisoners have as much right to government representation as anyone else.

    Voting is a basic right in this nation, and it should not be removed for ANY reason. We should be automatically registered to vote at birth, with the registration automatically validating on your 18th birthday. You shouldn’t have to register, declare a party, or prove your identity. If you are an American citizen, you can vote, period.

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 hours ago

      prove your identity. If you are an American citizen

      how do you verify someone is a citizen if you don’t make them prove their identity?

      I live in an EU country and absolutely do have to prove my identity when I vote. I do not have to “register to vote”, or more precisely, I’m already required to register my residence with the government, which doubles as voter registration (the government knows my DOB and citizenship, so knows whether I meet those criteria). Getting disenfranchised for criminal convictions is a thing here, but only very rarely and AFAIK only when specifically sentenced to it.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        10 hours ago

        Basically, it’s like you, it’s proved by your residence. That way people can’t vote twice. It used to be that you only had to show up with a utility bill in your name, at your address, and that was enough ID, and that worked just fine for decades. They would check you off their list, you’d vote, and go about your day.