The Oregon Secretary of State is backing HB 2177, which provides that every adult citizen known to the Motor Vehicle office, who is not already registered to vote, will get a letter saying the individual will be automatically registered to vote unless the individual responds that he or she doesn’t wish to be registered to vote. The letter will also give such individuals a chance to choose a party affiliation. Individuals who don’t respond will then be automatically registered as independent voters.
North Dakota doesn’t have voter registration, so in a sense North Dakota already has this policy. But aside from North Dakota, if the bill passes, Oregon will be the first state in which individuals don’t need to do anything at all to become registered, as long as they already have a drivers license or a state ID card.
I suppose it’s even more likely considering she becomes governor tomorrow.
Just think of how many people will automatically added as Independents simply because they own a car.
This is just another step toward George Orwell’s 1984. When millions of people don’t vote even though they are registered, will the state ever then call on them to find out WHY they did not vote in the last election?
Don’t they do this in North Korea today?
“You WILL be assimilated!” – the Borg
Is “assimilated” the same thing as being sent to a “re-education camp” to teach you on why you should be a good “citizen” and vote for the party that takes care of all your needs?
Gee – one more Donkey scheme to get those *1984* robots in human form.
Will the control freaks merely vote for any body who does not vote on his/her own power ???
This will be great for people who gather petition signatures to place issues or candidates on the ballot in Oregon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)
Is the new female Oregon Guv the New Age Borg Queen ???
Any strange stuff on her body — or just a Borg so-called CONTROL FREAK brain ???
Two questions, Richard.
One: Will the state ask each party to compose a short statement of principles/issues similar to what’s included with a California sample ballot to help them choose a party?
Two: What process will Oregon follow, before it mails out, that letter to separate out those people who aren’t yet citizens of these United States?
Re: non-citizens, every state (even those that grants licenses to illegal immigrants, but also all the others that grant licenses to legal resident aliens) inquires into citizenship status as part of the application process. So even if it’s not printed on the DL itself, it’s already in the state’s databases.
I don’t agree with all of you naysayers who think that automatic voter registration is some kind of government plot to gather people’s personal information and ‘assimilate’ us. Clearly, folks with drivers licenses and IDs are already in a government data base!
In fact, I see it as the opposite: “the government” is actively encouraging people to participate by making it easier to vote (hence, choose their leaders) by removing one very real barrier to voting.
Three cheers to the Secretary of State and the sponsor of this forward-thinking bill!
Rick: If you don’t believe that there is an effort on the part of some people to bring about the control of the masses (for their better good), then I have some cheap swamp land in Louisiana I’ll sell to you. Just let me know when your ready to do the exchange.
Yes, these people honestly think they are doing us good. They honestly think they have been anointed to lead and make those hard decisions which you and I are not capable of making.
And yes, the information is already out there. For a minimal fee, a website called “Been Verified” will give you just about everything you want to find out about a friend or family member. Where do you think this private entity got this information? You’re right, the government.
Right now, one has to pay to snoop on their friend or family. What happens when the government decides that you have no privacy, and that everything you have ever done is the right of the public to know – for whatever reason.
And what makes this legislation so bad, is that since many illegal aliens have automobiles, then they get automatically registered to vote. Who says that illegals don’t vote? And we know how most of them vote, don’t we? This is the problem.
Hitler and Stalin surely thought that the stuff they did was just great for most folks in then Germany and the USSR respectively —
purges, mass murder, wars, tyranny.
How many USA folks have Borg implants in their MORON skulls ???
Last November, there was a women in Texas who was claiming that she moved back and forth between California and Texas, and had a California driver’s license, but was registered to vote in Texas. Since she didn’t have a Texas driver’s license, she was applying for a Voter ID card at the DMV, and apparently because of a language barrier was warned that she needed a Texas driver’s license.
Had she been from Oregon, under the new bill, the SOS would have sent a notice to her Oregon address, and if she did not respond within a short while would place her on voter registration list.
Since persons who apply for a driver’s license are automatically asked if they want to register to vote, and the overwhelming total of registrations are through the DMV, it is likely the new law will pick up very few new voters.
A better system would be to have a national ID, which could be used to vote with. When someone moved, they would be more likely to update their address on a national ID, since it is a hassle to have an old address. And if they chose not to, they could continue to vote at their former residence.
The federal government would transmit updates to election officials so that poll books, etc. could be maintained.
A BIG NO on the National ID idea for too many reasons to mention. Folks, the fact is that voting is a responsibility, not a right. If people want to vote, plain and simple it is THEIR OWN responsibility to register themselves and become educated about the candidates. Forcing people to register to vote is just the first step in then coercing them to vote (or fining them if they don’t), and then by a straight ticket or limited candidates, further controlling the electoral process. NO!!
Rick, see Andy’s comment above; He is on the right track with a valid concern. Look at all the illegals being issued drivers licenses around the country now. Proof of citizenship is not required. People just check the box claiming that they are U.S. citizens knowing full well that the government is too overwhelmed with this invasion to check up on them. Mail-in voter registration just exacerbates this problem since only a deliverable mailing address is required. We have enough of a problem with this already. What we need is to have both motor voter and mail-in registrations be temporary voter IDs until the person shows up to vote for the first time whereby their state/local (NOT National except for passport) photo ID AND U.S. citizenship can be verified by the poll workers. Only then do they get issued their formal voter ID.
Use of the National ID card would be voluntary.