General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Should The US Have Mandatory Voting? [View all]tabbycat31
(6,336 posts)Compulsory voting would not work in this country, but I'm not opposed to compulsory education of voters. When I was a senior in HS, the board of elections came to our government class. THey had voter registration forms with them (and registered all who turned 18 before Election day, including myself) and brought a voting machine with them. As they registered us to vote, they also showed us how the (now obsolete) machine worked and explained the importance of voting. They were not partisan at all. But the new voters they registered that day were informed of how elections and the voting machines worked. I'd like to see every high school senior have that as part of their civics education.
Voting by mail-- In my state (NJ), you don't need a reason to vote by mail. The first year this was in effect was 2009. But because it's a (fairly) new law, very few people are aware of it (maybe if this were 2008 it would have been different). It's super easy, but campaigns and county clerks (a partisan position) have to do a better job of informing people of the option. Other states I've worked in (as a campaign staffer) have much stricter absentee voting laws. I'm in favor of lifting strict absentee voting laws and expanding early voting (which my governor vetoed on the basis of it being too expensive then scheduled a special election in October).
Online voting--- First of all not all states require your SSN when registering to vote (which is a good thing, I don't want to give mine out if I don't have to). And if states that don't already do so start requiring it for voting, you will (rightfully) get an outrage. I'm on the voting rolls in two states (I haven't voted in NY since 2006, my sister hasn't voted there since 2004 and we're both still on the rolls) and it shows that NY does not communicate with other states when it comes to cleaning their voter rolls (others are different). I don't have a common name, but for a state without a SSN on the form, a John Smith could be screwed over by an error. I'm all for being able to do things online but there has to be a better way of doing it that does not involve a SSN.
Perhaps if the state assigned everyone a voter ID #, then you could vote online. The technology is there, as evidenced by online banking (then again the companies that make voting machines without a receipt are the same ones that make ATMs that give receipts so I'm skeptical there). But I don't see it happening anytime soon.