Townhall.com
Jeff Jacoby
March 28, 2018

It came last week to Washington state, where Governor Jay Inslee signed a new law under which anyone applying for a driver's license or an identification card will be automatically registered to vote. Residents who don't want to be registered will have to affirmatively opt out; otherwise, their names and addresses will be added to the voter rolls and become public information. And what necessitated this infringement on citizens' previously unfettered freedom to avoid participation in politics and elections? Inslee offered up the usual boilerplate:

"Nearly 2 million voices [are] going unheard in our state's democratic process," he intoned. "Democracy is served when more people participate."

Those statements are untrue. Choosing to avoid the electoral system is not "going unheard," and democracy isn't "served" by pushing uninformed, unmotivated, or uninterested voters into the political process. But jacking up voter registration and turnout numbers has become a popular fetish, especially on the American left. Having failed to induce millions of citizens to register to vote despite hectoring, guilt-tripping, and making the process so easy as to be virtually effortless — would-be voters can sign up almost instantly in person, online, or by mail — liberals and Democrats are resorting to their usual default position: mandating it by law.

Washington is the 10th state (along with the District of Columbia) to adopt automatic voter registration in recent years. A full-court press is currently underway to make Massachusetts the 11th. More than half the state Legislature has cosponsored bills to automatically enroll residents as voters when they apply for Medicaid, renew a driver's license, or interact in other ways with state agencies. A coalition of left-wing activist groups, including Common Cause, the ACLU, Progressive Massachusetts, and College Democrats, is lobbying for the legislation. William Galvin, the commonwealth's longtime secretary of state, recently endorsed the measures. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has been touting them since January.

Automatic voter registration is an ill-conceived solution to an imaginary problem — that people are kept from voting because signing up to do so is unduly difficult. In a typical expression of that fiction, the head of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters said last week that automatically registering voters will "expand access to the ballot by removing unnecessary obstacles to registration." It is the government's responsibility, the league insists, "to make voting as easy as possible."

But with rare exceptions, there are no "unnecessary obstacles" to voting. On the whole, Americans who don't vote don't want to vote. After every election, the Census Bureau compiles data on nonvoters, and those data consistently confirm that difficulties with registration account for only a minuscule fraction — in 2016, it was just 4.4 percent — of uncast votes. Far more Americans choose not to vote because they didn't like the candidates or issues (24.8 percent), were too busy (14.3 percent), or simply weren't interested (15.4 percent).

The right to vote is undeniably precious; so is the right to tune out politics and politicians. The evidence shows that when citizens are motivated to vote, they register. When they aren't motivated, they don't. In a free society, both impulses should be respected.

Registering to vote is already "as easy as possible." All that is required to get on the voter rolls is a willingness to complete a short form. At many of the gun-control rallies over the weekend, people were recruited to sign up by voter-registration volunteers who energetically brandished clipboards and shouted "It takes less than three minutes!" As those rallies with their hundreds of thousands of protesters showed, when citizens are inspired to act, they are eminently capable of doing so.

The same is true of involvement in elections. For those who choose to be voters, our system makes the process dead simple. But the choice is theirs, as it should be. The campaign for automatic voter registration degrades that choice; it's grounded in the condescending presumption that men and women in a democracy are incapable of deciding for themselves whether to participate in democratic exercises. It's a remarkably arrogant idea, but it seems to be catching on.

Link

If you're on the list as a voter. They will find a way to cast your vote.

Yes, it should be the individual's choice to register, or not.

Maybe this action is part of some plan to redraw voting district boundaries?

Outrageous.

More plotting and scheming by the persistent vote riggers.

What about those on the witness protection program, placed in states under false names, given d/ls, other documents, a living, credit I imagine?

Another case of government over reaching. In Mississippi, subpoenas for jury selection are culled from the voting rolls. This is not the kind of help that I need.

Some states use voter registration as a pool for jury duty.

I wonder too what the voter registration status is of an illegal alien with a Washington state driver’s license.

what a great way to enhance and support voter fraud

This is the law in Australia. They have compulsory voting.

quote:

Within three months of an election, Divisional Returning Officers will send penalty notices to apparent non-voters. Those who have died, or were travelling overseas on election day can be spared from this process.

Those who receive notices can choose to pay the $20 penalty, elect to be prosecuted, or offer a valid and sufficient reason for not voting.

ABC.Net.AU - Why do we have compulsory voting?

If you don't PAY taxes, your vote should be null. Or at least, weighted X .50.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
If you don't PAY taxes, your vote should be null. Or at least, weighted X .50.

If you don't pay taxes (as in falling under the threshold), should your second amendment rights be curtailed, your first amendment rights? How about your fourth or fifth amendment rights?

... and just experienced this first hand yesterday.

I went to a nearby driving licensing office to get my DL changed to an EDL.

Enhanced Drivers License. As WA state is one of those states that has a driver's license format that doesn't meet DHS ID standards for travel within the US. Or something like that.

As part of the eDL process, one proves your citizenship, by birth or naturalization. Now that you are a proven US citizen, there is the screen that has you automagically enrolled as a voter. No choice, no yes/no/cancel ...

I am already enrolled to vote, so that wasn't a concern. More that one has no choice in the matter, in this instance, when applying for an EDL. Same rule for a regular DL.

Citizen? Voter.

At least, voting in the US is not compulsory.

As it is in Australia, where a federal law sees one fined and/or imprisoned, if you don't roll up to vote at federal elections.

King County- We'll keep counting the votes until we get the result we want........

I'm not convinced that it should be easy to vote. It's shouldn't be difficult, of course, but I don't see a problem with there being at least a small amount of concerted effort required to do it. Only those who are willing to make that modicum of effort should be voting. I would agree to there being some provisions to ease the problem for those truly physically incapable of making the effort.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by Storm:
This is the law in Australia. They have compulsory voting.

quote:

Within three months of an election, Divisional Returning Officers will send penalty notices to apparent non-voters. Those who have died, or were travelling overseas on election day can be spared from this process.

Those who receive notices can choose to pay the $20 penalty, elect to be prosecuted, or offer a valid and sufficient reason for not voting.

ABC.Net.AU - Why do we have compulsory voting?

Yep, Singapore has mandatory voting as well. The only exception I know of is if their area only has one candidate.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
If you don't PAY taxes, your vote should be null. Or at least, weighted X .50.

For me, it would be if you are a welfare recipient who is able but refuses to work, it would be weight by 0.

Voting shouldn't be a way to make a living because they'll just keep voting in those who want to take from those who work to give to those who refuse to work.

Nothing but a welfare society dependent on the government.

Let's see which states have automatic voter registration and offer driver licenses to wetbacks.

Washington, D.C.
California
Washington state
Colorado
Illinois
Vermont

Wetback Driver Licenses

Automatic Voter Registration

Those who would ordinarily be too lazy to register will undoubtedly be the types that will vote for whomever offers the most freebies.
==> Democrat recruitment campaign.

I thought when you registered you picked a party? How does that come up? Registered republican or democrats?

I dont remember when I signed up but I did to avoid the beast

quote:

Originally posted by Opus Dei:
Let's see which states have automatic voter registration and offer driver licenses to wetbacks....
California
....

CA lets all illegals to get a drivers license with minimal (even bogus) ID, automatically registered to vote. And it seems such votes, real or imagined, are for Dems.

Sidenote. A few years ago a friend went with her granddaughter to Central Valley to traffic court, to answer a ticket. Most of the casses were dismissed, defendants were no-show. Our friend (who had to pay ~$300 fine) asked the bailiff what's going on. The bailiff responded that the dismissed tickets were given to illegals, we can't ID them properly, no way to find them, no way to get money if we did find them. It's easier to just drop it.

Jay Inslee was my Congressional Representative for 9 years. I have spoken to him twice - rarely have I met a more un-informed ass hat. Very patronizing too - his whole attitude is that he is better than me and I don't really know what is and isn't a "true" issue.
I saw the writing on the wall and fled the state I was born and raised in. Hated to do it but Washington has become California part 2, and Jay Inslee is one of the main reasons this is so.