On July 19, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo signed HB 5702, which provides that every adult citizen known to exist in Rhode Island will automatically be registered, unless the individual opts out.
The same idea passed the Illinois legislature in May, but the Governor of Illinois hasn’t signed it yet. He has until July 29.
Honestly, this will help to solved voter apathy problem majority.
I doubt it. Unless they start making voting mandatory, anyway.
I will absolutely hate it if voter registration or voting become mandatory. I hope this law has a component which requires the state to inform citizens that they’re registered and to also remind them of this from time to time.
I’ve always been puzzled at the theory that a major reason why so many people do not vote is because no one has yet handed them, on a silver platter, a pleasantly convenient method of getting registered to vote. I think there are lots more reasons for being a non-voter than that.
What percentage of folks 18 and over are illiterate – esp due to rotted publik skooools ???
Gee- one more plot by the communist Donkeys to get PERMANENT control ??? Duh.
@Mark Dunlap in a lot of states you have to register a month before the election, and unfortunately many people don’t think about voting until right before and then find out its too late. If every state allowed same day registration this wouldn’t be a problem. That said RI has same-day registration, but only for Presidential elections.
I think it’s possible to make it too easy to vote. Lots of people have no idea who or what they’re voting for on election day. I want voting to be an act that someone plans on and deliberates over. It shouldn’t be something that people do because it’s a popular thing to do.
@Clay Do you plan and deliberate for over a month on who you plan to vote for your local Water Board, Alderman, Highway Superintendent, or whether the local school should buy a new bus? Everyone automatically thinks of voting for President or Congress but there are lots of little races too on the off years, 30 days seems a bit much to me.
The problem with American democracy is that too many people vote, not that too few people vote. Restrict voting to only those over the age of 25 who are property owners and/or, have served honorably in the military. Since I am not a property owner and have never been in the military then I would not be able to vote under my proposal. Even so I think it is the right thing to do.
Robert Stock…. perfect way to get us to be a authoritarian dictatorship… The only people that go into the military are authoritarians. So yeah… fantastic idea that will see individuals – who rightly hold the view that the military is an imperialistic pile of shit – oppressed even more than they already are. If you’re going to be subjected to the laws written by the people that are elected, you have every right to decide who the people that rights those laws are. Yes, that too means people that are here “illegally” should be allowed to vote.
The core of the issue of our flawed democracy (not my choice of words – the democracy index rates as such) is a majority of people aren’t represented by the people elected… because nearly half the populace in every district doesn’t determine who their representative is, half of the state doesn’t determine who their senator is…. and half the country doesn’t decide who the president is. We have a fundamentally flawed system where you have a slight majority (sometimes a minority when more than 2 candidates run) decides who the representative is for the entire district, state or country. We have tyranny of the majority.
Do you realize less than 55% of the population actually votes. Almost 45% of the country has their representation dictated to them (and laws forced on them) because about 45% of the country is so disenfranchised with their choices of candidates.
Brandon, a lot of those races have one candidate. Sometimes they have one candidate nominated by five parties. And often one party has twice as many registered voters as the next closest party. But to answer your question, yes.
I like the idea of making it easier for veterans to vote. But restricting voting to property owners is a terrible idea. I hope that the reasons are obvious.
The property stuff basically got wiped in the early 1800s — esp due to the Dorr’s War event in RI in 1842 — severe property qualification and even worse gerrymander. De facto revolt. 1844 RI Constitution – more voters, reduced gerrymanders.
See the various political history books about getting a higher percentage of Electors-Voters over decades.
See 14 Amdt, Sec. 2 — enacted due to the about 750,000 dead on both sides in Civil War I.
Women in 19th Amdt in 1920 due to WW I.
Stuff in reaction to EVIL oligarchs.
The Oregon SOS reports statistics on their program. If a person does business with the DMV, the SOS checks to see if they are registered to vote. About 2/3 are.
The remainder are sent a card telling them that they will be registered as non-affiliated unless they return the card within 21 days. If they return the card, they can opt out of being registered, choose a party, or remain non-affiliated. If the card is returned after 21 days, it is honored, but apparently as a correction. For example, if someone opted out after 6 weeks, the SOS would have already informed their county to register them, but the belated opt-out would reverse that. A late party affiliation request could be treated as an ordinary party change request.
About 6.1% opt out, about 12.9% return the card to request a party affiliation, and 81% do nothing and are registered as unaffiliated. Of the new registrants, 87.6% are non-affiliated, only 6.7% are Democratic, and 4.2% Republican.
The program may cost the Independent Party its major party status, which requires 5% of registrants. Only about 1% of the new registrants are registering as Independent Party. It appears that before people were getting/renewing a driver’s license, and were asked if they wanted to register, and handed a card that had party selection on it. They might decide they were “independent” and select the party.
Now they are not being asked whether they want to register, but are instead simply sent a card and told that they are registered if they do nothing more. It would also say that they could return the card if they wanted to select a party. They think they are “independent” and not select a party.
The regular program began at the start of 2016. In spring and early summer, there was an additional program to contact persons who had dealt with the DMV in 2014 and 2015. A larger share of them were registered, (they would have been asked at the time they were at the DMV if they wanted to register, or may have registered during the interim). The share of non-registered was about 1/6, compared to 1/3 for new DMV contacts, which suggests about 1/2 of DMV customers were getting registered before.
About 10.5% of the 2014/2015 contacts opted out. When they were at the DMV in 2015, they might have said they did NOT want to register (rather than “not now” or “no” or “got to run”, etc.). And now they are getting a card saying that they were being registered.
Lots of folks are noting that party hack registration lists are PURGE lists.
See the Trump gang voter commission. Hitler would be happy to be on such commission.