There is exactly ONE SOLUTION to the republican voter supression

[Rosco T.]

them throwing people off the voter roles, insane voter id requirements.

One Solution.

FEDERAL VOTER REGISTRATION.

The right to vote is the right to vote. It's insane for one state to have one set of requirements to vote for President or any other federal office.

If you have a FEDERAL VOTER REGISTRATION CARD, you can vote in any federal election, no matter WHERE you are.

If you are a resident of the state (and there MUST be a standardized, uniform means of showing that) they you can vote in a STATE election anywhere in your state.

County, City, District, etc.. the requirements must be UNIFORM and applied the same to everyone, everywhere.

[PDJane]

1. Um. You mean it isn't?

Not a dumb question; I never thought about it. I'm a Canadian. The voter rolls here are a federal responsibility, and the census is aligned with the federal rolls.

I just assumed, which is a stupid thing to do, that the same was applicable there.

[freshwest]

4. State by state. That's why the federal voting rights act was needed. Each state can change its laws.

That's why there is so much voter suppression when the GOP is the majority in the state legislatures.

[Ohio Progressive]

14. Not only state by state

But county by county. Some (most) states leave the elections up to the county board of elections. THey can do the elections however they want to as long as meet certain requirements. So in one county you will ahve paperless electronic machines, while in another you will have all paper ballots.

[hedgehog]

19. Which also allows for electoral fraud. Back in the day in Illinois,

the Democratic machine in Chicago was very careful not to release its total s too far ahead of downstate counties. It was all too easy for the downstaters to add votes to their count to tip statewide races.

[freshwest]

2. In the meantime, only a massive voter out will allow such a provision to be made. GOTV.

[Vincardog]

3. Unfortunately the Constitution says that elections are up to the states.

[PDJane]

5. Which explains a lot. eom

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. But if you amend the Constitution...........

States, including a certain southern one, haven't always done the best job managing elections

[siligut]

10. 3/4 of the states have to ratify an amendment, catch 22. nt

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. Of course it will be difficult

but it can be done if there is enough support, of course.

[siligut]

13. Some states just don't want to play fair

They need the control to skew things to their advantage. It would be as difficult as getting Romney to pay back the pensions he stole, times a whole bunch of cheaters.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

15. True

how true, unfortunately. Their ability to keep gaming the system can't/won't last forever.

[siligut]

17. Something has to happen to change it

Somebody has to get the ball rolling. The status quo is mired in vested interests, money and power.

[LiberalFighter]

16. A little bit more there

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

[Hippo_Tron]

22. So is the drinking age

But the federal government gets around that and all sorts of other things by making requirements for how federal money is distributed. Just pass a law saying that any state refusing to comply gets zero federal dollars.

[Gothmog]

6. Federal govt has room to regulate as to Federal Election

The Democrats have made this proposal already. Look at the Motor Voter law. We need to retake control of the House and keep control of the Senate to get this done.

[chollybocker]

7. Sounds nice, but

Electoral votes are determined by the results of each state.

The popular vote doesn't factor into the decision re POTUS.

US elections are state-by-state issues entirely.

[hedgehog]

20. Here's one workaround for that :

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

States join the compact by adopting it as a state law. The compact law requires that:

The member state shall hold presidential elections by statewide popular vote.

After the election, the state's chief election official (usually the state Secretary of State) shall certify the number of popular votes cast in the state for each candidate and report those results to the other states by a specific deadline.

The chief election official shall then determine "national popular vote totals" for each candidate by adding up the vote totals reported by every state (including states that have not adopted the compact) and the District of Columbia. (Under current federal law, each state is required to make official reports of vote totals to the federal government in the form of Certificates of Ascertainment.)[2]

The state's electoral votes shall be awarded to the candidate with the greatest "national popular vote total."








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. I agree

We need to have some kind of uniform system for federal elections. Not exactly quite sure why each state should be allowed to have its own rules for federal elections. The Canadian system- as described by Michael Moore- seems to make a lot more sense but then again they've also had health care delivery figured out for decades and we're just (kind of) now starting to move in that direction.

USA! USA! USA!

[polichick]

12. Or at least a federal law requiring votes to be VERIFIABLE...

Neither party seems to give a shit about this - and, until they do, the idea that we're a democracy is just smoke and mirrors.

On edit: I know that this is a separate issue, but imo suppression and the lack of verifiable voting are two sides of the same coin of corruption.

[Gregorian]

18. Also repealing Citizens United. It's kind of the opposite of voter suppression.

I saw this comment today to a petition today regarding Citizens United-

The definition of speech is "the expression of or the ability to express thoughts and feelings by articulate sounds." A corporation is a construct of society; not being human, it does not itself have thoughts or feelings, and therefore cannot engage in the speech of Amendment One of the Constitution. The "speech" of a corporation reflects the thoughts and feelings of the individuals that control it.

The Citizens United decision has provided a subterfuge which allows the wealthiest individuals to have an outsized ability to give voice, and therefore outsized influence, to their political interests.

This Supreme Court decision, by allowing unlimited spending to influence the vote, is destroying the one man, one vote concept of democracy, and changing our country into an oligarchy of the wealthiest.

[liberalnationalist]

21. my solution to facist republican voter supression

cannot be mentioned here

[Jamaal510]

23. I was about to suggest mandatory voting

like how the Census is mandatory. But OP's idea sounds fantastic.

[DFW]

24. In Germany, your voter registration comes in the mail automatically, and they STILL make mistakes

My wife and daughters, as German citizens, get their voter registration automatically in the mail. All they have to do is go to their polling place and vote. Usually, anyway. One year, my wife went to vote, and was told she was in the wrong polling place, as she was registered as living in München, in Bavaria and at the other end of Germany. She insisted she had never lived in München, and the poll workers said their computers had her as living in München, so she lived in München. End of story. She blew up at them, told them to check their computers for our daughters, who were 3 and 5 years old at the time, to see where they lived. Their computer said that our daughters did indeed live here near Düsseldorf, in NRW. She then demanded they arrest her for abandoning her children or allow her to vote. They allowed her to vote (don't mess with my wife unless you're right and she's wrong).