this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
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Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)

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ELI5 why do people in USA need to register to vote? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by verstra@programming.dev to c/eli5@lemmy.world
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I'd expect the state to have a list of all its citizens and their basic personal info (age) which could be used to determine their eligibility for voting. In my country, we get a "invitation" to the vote, with your voter station and info on how to change it.

Instead, I'm seeing posts about USA's "voter rolls", which are sometimes purged, which prevents people from voting. Isn't this an attack on the voting system and democracy itself?

So why doesn't USA have a list of voters? Are they stupid?

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[–] verstra@programming.dev 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

We do have "permanent address" here too and it is used to determine the voter station and district and thus the representative candidates you can vote.

Is the "permanent address" a thing just for the voting system, or is it used for other bureaucracy as well?

[–] jjagaimo@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Governmental agencies typically dont share data like that so you would have to give them your address separately. Imo its partially a republican "hurr no big govt" and jim crow type deal where republicans want to keep poor people and colored people from voting (less likely to have the time to register or have a fixed address).

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Independently. I don’t there is any connection, but yes I have a residence for determining where I vote and who for, my city lists my primary residence for property tax purposes (investment/rental property is taxed more) and excise tax, my state department of revenue lists my residence for income tax but they may coordinate with IRS which does the same. My drivers license has my residence address but I don’t know if they need to be the same nor does it need to be the same as my car’s location, etc