Surely everyone should be allowed to vote?
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
October 13, 2020 11:03am CST
One thing that has always surprised me about the American electoral system is all the effort that seems to be made to deny people the right to vote. I am looking at videos of people in huge queues in Georgia, some waiting for up to 11 hours, to exercise their vote, even though the official vote deadline is three weeks away. Why do so many people have to attend same polling station? That just would not happen in the UK, where each polling station serves only a few thousand voters at the most.
We keep hearing about efforts to invalidate votes and make it as difficult as possible in certain areas for people to vote by post.
Apart from that, if you have committed a crime in the United States you lose the right to vote altogether. Why? You have paid your penalty by serving a prison sentence, but surely that should not mean that you have no right to choose your representative in Congress?
In the UK everyone who is on the electoral roll is entitled to vote, and you get on the roll simply by being a citizen and having a UK address. Why is that not the same in the United States?
5 people like this
9 responses
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
13 Oct 20
What you've described here is also true for Germany. I have to do nothing before an election. I'm a German citizen and the city council sends me the invitation to vote by post. With these I go to the place where the voting takes place. There I get my ballot paper and make my crosses.
4 people like this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
14 Oct 20
I seem to remember that applied north of the border, seeking to elect MPs who never took up their seats because they wouldn't swear loyalty to Her Maj. The tactic seemed to work!
@LadyDuck (458091)
• Switzerland
14 Oct 20
I was born in Italy and even if I have no more an Italian address, I have the right to vote and I receive the card that allows me to vote by mail thought he consulate or to go to Milan to vote. There is nothing I have to do, I am Italian and it is my civic right to vote.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (458091)
• Switzerland
14 Oct 20
@indexer This is recent story for Italy. In the past, they paid they paid the cost of the trip to go to Italy. I remember several Italian immigrants coming back from the United States and South America to vote... but finally they came back to see their families.
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
13 Oct 20
The tricks that are allowed in the US are amazing. I am particularly incensed by "redistricting" that allows winners to redraw the map so that they are highly unlikely to lose next time. In the UK the constituency boundaries are drawn by a completely independent and non-political body.
All UK elections are also handled by independent officials who are not subject to political interference - and the same goes for our legal system!
2 people like this
@thislittlepennyearns (58134)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
13 Oct 20
I don't neccesarily think everyone should be allowed to vote.
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
13 Oct 20
@thislittlepennyearns The rule in the UK is that people serving time cannot vote, neither can people with severe mental impairment. The same also applies to Royalty and members of the House of Lords!
1 person likes this
@thislittlepennyearns (58134)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
13 Oct 20
@indexer There are some criminals that given their crimes or mental status probably shouldn't vote. Anyone arrested for attacks on police, firemen etc.
2 people like this
@DearAphrodite (194)
•
13 Oct 20
My country is totally corrupt. I called a local council woman two weeks ago and she told me about how a man "donated" a million dollars to one of her opponents in order to get a building of his rezoned. Unless you are a millionaire in this country you have no rights anymore.
As far as the voting go's a long time ago some better than you types made it so felons could no longer vote because those kind of people are undesirable in society.
Its sad to see what has happened to my country. Yet as a nation we can't seem to unite and practice civil disobedience. I imagine you have seen the riots unfortunately they are targeting each other. Honestly I'm embarrassed of my country.
1 person likes this
@DearAphrodite (194)
•
13 Oct 20
@indexer Thank you. Its not just the presidents that have power. The state and local representatives have a lot more power than people realize. We need so much change. Term limits. No more lobbyist money. Those two things might make this country by the people and for the people again. All we can do is hope.
2 people like this
@Chellezhere (5363)
• United States
14 Oct 20
There is no voter suppression in these United States. That is just a progressive, leftist, democrat talking point. If there are long lines such as you suggest in this post, it is because more people are going out to vote this time. In years when there is no "pandemic," people show up at these polling places sporadically from the moment they are open, until they close on Election Day. But, with a lot of people being home more because of this "pandemic," many people are just trying to get their voting done quickly in order to make sure their votes are made legitimately (so they will count).
There is a huge difference between mail-in voting and absentee voting. Absentee ballots are those in which people request directly from their Supervisor of Elections. These ballots are mailed to those who cannot physically go to their polling locations on Election Day because they are military personnel, out-of-town, overseas, or ill. For example: I am legally blind and cannot drive, my brother, who is registered to vote in Georgia is down here for a while, because our mother (who is also a registered voter) has Stage 4B pancreatic cancer with metastasis to her liver, and leakage into her bile ducts, and her wife's grandson is an Marine stationed in Japan.
Historically, those were the only reasons why people where granted absentee ballots, but because of this "pandemic," and people accusing those not infected of being "Typhoid Mary," some states are no longer requiring valid excuses from voters who request absentee ballots.
Mail-in ballots are unsolicited and sent by political groups to everyone, whether they have requested a ballot or not (hence the reason why they are unsolicited). And, these and applications for absentee ballots that some states sent out, are part of the reason why there is voter fraud in America, and why so many people are going to their polling locations to vote now, rather than on November 3rd).
And, how can I say that? Well, back before our local primaries, I called the Supervisor of Elections and requested absentee ballots for these elections. So, a ballot was sent to me for the primary a few months ago, and the presidential election last week. And, those two ballots should have been the only ones I received, yet I have received several unsolicited ballots from political groups, and Facebook keeps prompting me to vote, and/or register to vote in every state in which I have ever lived. I kid you not, every time I log in, Facebook is prompting me to vote in one of a half a dozen states in which I no longer reside.
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
14 Oct 20
Why do you put the word pandemic in inverted commas? Do you not believe that it is a world-wide infection that has killed more than a million people and adversely affected the health of millions more?
And what could possibly be wrong, in these circumstances, with encouraging people to vote by mail? Several states have been doing this for years and have had absolutely no problems with fraud. Yes, there may well be attempts to screw the system in places, but you have to look at this in the round and appreciate that many more votes will be legitimately recorded than illegitimately.
I have been involved in counting votes in the UK for a number of years, and I do not believe that the way it is done in the US will be any less thorough and secure than how we do it in the UK, where every vote is treated with care and any effort at cheating is dealt with.
Are you trying to tell me that the most technically advanced country in the world cannot conduct a national election without discovering any attempt at sharp practice?
Mind you, having said that, it is still a very strange way of electing a President. It might have made sense 200 years ago to have the Electoral College system, but these days it makes no sense at all. You are electing a President for the whole country, so why not decide it based on the votes of the whole country? As things stand, many of the votes cast have absolutely no effect on the overall result - they only matter in states with large Electoral College representations and, even then, only in those states where there is a possibility of a swing from one party to the other from the previous result.
@everwonderwhy (6697)
•
13 Oct 20
It's Constitutional duty and privilege to lawfully exercise your freedom to vote.
