• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Would It Make A Difference?

Loss Leader said:
A provably correct answer to this question would be worth millions to a presidential campaign strategist.
Click to expand...

If they're anything like me, they'd vote for the option "Screw them all".

In Alabama, compulsory voting would be interesting. There may be a large proportion of democrats but it's difficult to to really know. There's party lines but there's also a lot of consensus between those lines too. Gay marriage for instance, you'll find democrats who oppose gay marriage and will vote against it just as much as Republicans. Democrats have also had some corruption issues years ago and the current roster of democrats in office are nothing exemplary.

Alabama would be the same embarrassing mess of a state regardless of compulsory voting.
 
I'd be for this only if every race had a "none of the above" choice. If "none of the above" wins then those candidates are forbidden from running in that election. If "none of the above" wins a second time then a winner for that office is chosen at random from a list of voters.

Couldn't be worse than what we get now. ;)
 
You know, the more I think about this, the stranger it seems to me that we don't much hear peep from our leaders regarding our duty towards ourselves and each other.
We could do with some '50's style patriotism focus. It was in part the result of the general embarrassment we felt after getting beat to space by the Soviets.
I'd like to see another generation raised on the importance of education, science, and civic duty.
 
Most Americans are liberal, so the higher the voter turnout, the more likely the most liberal of the candidates will win.
 
Wildcat's none of the above suggestion reminds me of another of my half-thought ideas - representatives should be drafted, not elected.
 
I wonder what a compulsory voting + ability of electorate to hold a no confidence vote against officials would look like.

I feel like Advisory Panels should be able to hold censure/ no confidence votes against congressional committees ( I'm thinking about Inhofe's snowball stupidity here). When you allocate decades of the budget to a multitude of scientific bodies and they come back repeatedly with reports concerning climate change and he comes in and throws a snowball on the ground, I can't tell if he's incomprehensibly stupid or that our government is so fiscally irresponsible that they spent so much money only to ignore the investment.
 
Lowpro said:
I feel like Advisory Panels should be able to hold censure/ no confidence votes against congressional committees ( I'm thinking about Inhofe's snowball stupidity here).
Click to expand...

You don't get it, do you? Congressional committees are the Advisory Panels, and the States hold no confidence votes on a regular basis already.
 
ApolloGnomon said:
Wildcat's none of the above suggestion reminds me of another of my half-thought ideas - representatives should be drafted, not elected.
Click to expand...

I've expressed this before....Find competent, intelligent people and drag them off, kicking and screaming if need be, to serve in Congress for a couple of years.

Someone noted that the American political system (well, likely all political systems ) is designed to elect people that are exactly the wrong people for the type of job we want them to do.

I don't know about mandatory voting.... Sounds problematic. However, automatic registration seems to be a pregnant idea.
You're a citizen of the required age? You're registered.
 
Bikewer said:
I've expressed this before....Find competent, intelligent people and drag them off, kicking and screaming if need be, to serve in Congress for a couple of years.
Click to expand...

You can't force someone to rule. Not effectively. Either they'll fight tooth and nail to get out, they'll have absolutely no interest in the job, or they'll figure out ways to use it to benefit them personally, screwing over the electorate. There are enough problems with conscript armies this day and age; a conscript government is a terrible idea.
 
Bikewer said:
I don't know about mandatory voting.... Sounds problematic. However, automatic registration seems to be a pregnant idea.
You're a citizen of the required age? You're registered.
Click to expand...
How do you do that without a government-issued ID card? Otherwise how do you determine residency?
 
WildCat said:
How do you do that without a government-issued ID card? Otherwise how do you determine residency?
Click to expand...

Birth certificate works. In today's world, a DNA database wouldn't be impossible--but pretty much everyone would howl in rage at such a suggestion.

I do like the idea of automatic registration, IF it is tied to something. Like, automatic registration when you get a driver's license--you don't have to vote, and you can still register if you don't have a license, but when you get your license it also counts as a registration card. It's proof of citizenship; mine even has my address on it. They're keyed to the state you live in, and with an address to the county, township, and town you live in, so there's no problems there. And if someone requires an international driver's license, simply put something on it saying "Not a voter registration card". In our culture, driving is nearly ubiquitous, so really the only impact it would have is making voting less obnoxious a process; it wouldn't bar the overwhelming majority from voting, and anyone who doesn't want a license but still wants to vote can register anyway.
 
Dinwar said:
Birth certificate works. In today's world, a DNA database wouldn't be impossible--but pretty much everyone would howl in rage at such a suggestion.
Click to expand...
How does a birth certificate work? I do not live in the town I was born in, and I never did. And I'd guess that holds true for 90%+ of the population.

Dinwar said:
I do like the idea of automatic registration, IF it is tied to something. Like, automatic registration when you get a driver's license--you don't have to vote, and you can still register if you don't have a license, but when you get your license it also counts as a registration card. It's proof of citizenship; mine even has my address on it. They're keyed to the state you live in, and with an address to the county, township, and town you live in, so there's no problems there. And if someone requires an international driver's license, simply put something on it saying "Not a voter registration card". In our culture, driving is nearly ubiquitous, so really the only impact it would have is making voting less obnoxious a process; it wouldn't bar the overwhelming majority from voting, and anyone who doesn't want a license but still wants to vote can register anyway.
Click to expand...
Now you're back to a government-issued ID, which the Democrats tell us is extremely racist.
 
WildCat said:
How does a birth certificate work? I do not live in the town I was born in, and I never did. And I'd guess that holds true for 90%+ of the population.


Now you're back to a government-issued ID, which the Democrats tell us is extremely racist.
Click to expand...

Oh aren't we stirring the hornet's nest. The issue isn't with government issued ID, but how you get it. Social Security Numbers aren't racist and they're a type of government issued ID. If the barrier to entry is reasonable and equitable then government issued ID's shouldn't be racist; that sometimes isn't the case, most times it usually it.

That ends that so let's not get silly here.

But I don't know why a birth certificate would work. Remember that almost ALL voting is at the State level and IMO is far more important than Fed level. The registration would need to be robust to make sense according to state residency laws, future census guidance, and transience. That's difficult, especially if citizens aren't aware of their obligations to document this in a timely manner. I was supposed to register with Kentucky within 30 days to transfer my driver's license for reciprocity. I missed that, so now if I want a KY license I have to retake their written exam. I don't want to do that, so I maintain my residency in Alabama where I still own property (legally, but not really since I don't reside there).
 
Last edited:
Lowpro said:
Oh aren't we stirring the hornet's nest. The issue isn't with government issued ID, but how you get it. Social Security Numbers aren't racist and they're a type of government issued ID. If the barrier to entry is reasonable and equitable then government issued ID's shouldn't be racist; that sometimes isn't the case, most times it usually it.
Click to expand...
Nonsense, the Dems say any ID requirement is racist, even when they're free of charge.
 
Dinwar said:
Birth certificate works. In today's world, a DNA database wouldn't be impossible--but pretty much everyone would howl in rage at such a suggestion.

I do like the idea of automatic registration, IF it is tied to something. Like, automatic registration when you get a driver's license--you don't have to vote, and you can still register if you don't have a license, but when you get your license it also counts as a registration card. It's proof of citizenship; mine even has my address on it. They're keyed to the state you live in, and with an address to the county, township, and town you live in, so there's no problems there. And if someone requires an international driver's license, simply put something on it saying "Not a voter registration card". In our culture, driving is nearly ubiquitous, so really the only impact it would have is making voting less obnoxious a process; it wouldn't bar the overwhelming majority from voting, and anyone who doesn't want a license but still wants to vote can register anyway.
Click to expand...


National Voter Registration Act (1993) AKA "Motor Voter Act".

Not quite "automatic registration" but it was an attempt at a move in that direction.

... and a progress report;

Driving the Vote: Are States Complying with the Motor Voter Requirements of the National Voter Registration Act?

Of course, conservatives in general and Repugnicans in particular are vehemently against any measures which increase voter rolls because anything which enables anyone aside from middle-aged white guys (and possibly obedient wives) simpler access to the polls is perceived as an ideological attack.
 
WildCat said:
Nonsense, the Dems say any ID requirement is racist, even when they're free of charge.
Click to expand...

Don't care what the Dems say or what the Republicans say. The barriers to entry are what matters, and if the barriers to entry disproportionately involve race (which may be segregated by geography or capacity to move) then that's a legitimate racial barrier.

But the word "racist" is quite charged, and one wonders if the pathos of the barriers is towards raising those barriers higher against race, or against geographical areas that are disproportionately non-white. Hard to determine. I wouldn't put it past Alabama to do that, but I would be careful to accuse at the same time.

Enough of these shenanigans Wildcat, get serious here or leave :catfight:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom