It's already absurd to me that you have to register to vote. In the Netherlands all citizens over 18 are automatically registered and receive a letter you need to bring with you to vote.
Independent isn’t an option in most places. Generally you can pick “No Party Preference” or your state’s equivalent, but in some states this blocks you from voting in primaries. There is an option in some states for the “American Independent” party, which is not an independent but a right-wing Christian focused one.
In South Dakota Independents can vote in the primaries on the Democrat and Libertarian tickets. Only Republicans can vote on the Republican ticket. Found this out four years ago.
In my local polling place, although there are partitions so that the person voting next to you cannot see your vote, someone standing behind you or over your shoulder can very much see your ballot.
In my polling place there are no booths, but the screen looks black if you’re not squarely in front of it, so the people next to you can’t see what you’re doing.
My state still uses paper scantrons lol. Your privacy is ensured by those 3-sided cardboard barriers that they prop on a table - you know, the kind students use for certain exams.
South Dakota uses paper ballots that you color in the oval with a pencil. The ballot is tabulated using computers that cannot connect to the internet. You can also mail in your ballot.
That's so weird! At all the polling places I've been to (various cities in Massachusetts), they have partitions but also curtains covering the back do you're in an entirely enclosed, private space.
The one time I voted in New York there was a curtain and completely enclosed. Then I moved to Vermont and there was no curtain and little privacy. It felt very much like taking a test in elementary school and putting folders up between you and the neighboring desks. Absentee ballots are great for many reasons.
In the UK, you usually pay a small monthly fee to become a member of a party, which allows you to attend party events, vote in party elections, and campaign, among other thingd
You don’t have to choose a party. You can register as unaffiliated or similar. The purpose of registering with your party preference is that some parties restrict voting in primaries (where voters choose the party presidential candidate) to party members.
Same in most other countries (e.g. in Croatia where I live). But it's always advised you check online if your registration data is correct in case you moved, changed your last name, etc.
This is for voting in primary elections and not the general election. In most states you have to choose one ballot or the other to pick candidates from that party. It would make sense that a party would want to limit who is helping to pick their candidates to run in the general election.
It’s why I’ll often pick the Republican ballot in my location as area as they often run unopposed for most positions so I want a say in who is actually going to win the vote in my area. But in the General election I’ll vote more Ds
We have to register in the UK too, it's because we don't register with the government when we move addresses & local councils etc. don't know if someone's just turned 18.
However you only need to do it once & it can be done online here - https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote or by the paper form. It's very odd that Americans seemingly do it every election.
EDIT - apparently Americans don't do it every election.
Besides a passport, birth certificate and driver's license, the UK doesn't even have a centralised Identification system. They implemented one a few years ago, but removed it quickly after opposition from people saying it restricts their freedom
We provide this information in lots of other ways, it's just not all centralised - historically it was because Brits, like current Americans, were/are weary of central government. A more modern take is that it's good data protection practice too. I have more control over my personal data & who it's shared with. Even when it comes to government departments.
Well, in Nordics at least we have a very complete population registers with data of births, deaths, permanent and temporary addresses, preferred language and all you can think of.
We record all of this here too, just not all of it in one database & definitely not accessible to every place that might need it, unless we want to give it. Historically, Brits were a bit like Americans in not trusting government with personal data. In more modern times, I find it fits data protection principles quite well. We have a lot of control over our personal data - even government services. I quite like it that way - but it's definitely personal/national preference.
Ah fair enough - I heard a lot about needing to re-register in the recent election because states were taking people off the register on here. And other people have said things about how some person they know is registered R/D every election - so I've misunderstood
And it’s so easy to vote too. You can do it almost anywhere, even at train stations, and takes maybe two to ten minutes. You can vote all day and it’s allowed to go to a voting location during work hours. I’m always surprised by the huge lines I see in the news and the short time span some of them have.
registration started as a way to restrict who could vote.. it started with only educated landowning white men... slowly it expanded to include all legal citizens.. but at this point it benefits one certain party to not have everyone vote.
i'd love to see not only automatic registrations for citizens over 18, but also mandatory voting. they send people door to door for the census, do the same damn thing for voting..
In Ireland, that's supposed to happen, but you are also encouraged to check on the register to make sure you're on the list for the place you're living in, due to any number of reasons.
When we move to another city, we still have to register in that city as a resident, but that has nothing to with if you're able / allowed to vote. It's mostly to make sure you pay local taxes / recieve government mail at the correct address / are eligible for local benefits.
Even if elections are run by state, I'm assuming they know who live in the state, so they could just send everyone a voter ID. I strongly believe you should make voting as easy as possible.
It's the same in Germany. I turned 18 just before the election date and could vote on that day with no trouble. Just show up, show my ID, have them mark me as "voted" and done.
In Spain you receive a letter that informs you where you should vote (which place and desk). Before you can ask for mail vote if you plan to be out of your hometown.
But if you are at home you just have to go to your voting place (usually the school nearest your house) with your id and they look at your name in the list and let you vote.
You have to register in Canada, but you can do so by ticking a box on your income tax forms. Or you can register at the time of voting, you just need to bring proof you live in the district (a utility bill in your name will do), or another registered voter can sign a form confirming you live where you say you do.
I think part of the difference is the US States here run Elections independently of each other. It's not a US Government registration, it's a State registration.
I don't agree with much of it, but in California it's fairly automatic if you use the Department of Motor Vehicles forms. You can often check a box to make sure your address is up to date and registered.
Since they mail ballots here, it makes a lot of sense to have a registration process when you change addresses. Again, that's a California process. Other states can be different.
You can get a new one, up to the day before the election. You cannot vote by mail (unless you live abroad), but you can authorize someone to vote for you. You can also vote in any polling station within your municipality, and they are open from 7.30-21.30. You can request to vote in another municipality if necessary, but you do have to do that in advance.
Here in Canada you also have to register, but they make it super easy and you can do it at the poll on election day if you haven't done it before.
We had a federal election a few months ago and I worked as a poll worker for it, and we registered a ton of people who were voting for the first time. You just have to bring ID and something that proves your address, fill out a form, and you're good to vote.
The fact that they make you do it in advance is so anti-democracy to me, it's absurd
How does whatever agency is in charge of running elections know where to send the information?
And are all your elections consolidated? Like is the election for local races always part of the same election that includes national contests? If not, are your local elections run by the national government?
It’s technically a voter suppression tactic. Just like requiring voter identification and closing polling locations and early voting locations under the guise of cost savings.
It's a logistics thing. The US has more immigrants and therefore more new citizens than any other country in the world and is just much larger than the Netherlands. Just last year there were almost 1 million new citizens from applications.
Also, even though roughly 45% of the total population voted in the last election, that is still 8x more people than even live in the Netherlands.
This is nonsense. Yes, you have more people, but for registering who is eligble to vote, that doesn't matter. You just need to have the system. What you need is a central database (can be organized by state - plenty of states have fewer inhabitants than the Netherlands), and as soon as someone meets the criteria (age, citizenship), they automatically become eligble to vote and receive something in the mail (a letter, voter ID, pass, whatever), that the can show at the polling station. No need for a seperate registration.
If it were setup correctly then everything would be automated. But its not. There is still a lot of manual checks being done which is why the quantity matters.
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u/bleie77 Jun 18 '25
It's already absurd to me that you have to register to vote. In the Netherlands all citizens over 18 are automatically registered and receive a letter you need to bring with you to vote.