{"id":8588,"date":"2018-05-10T10:50:39","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T17:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=8588"},"modified":"2018-05-10T10:50:39","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T17:50:39","slug":"voter-registration-is-voter-suppression-low-turnout-by-design-in-the-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/05\/10\/voter-registration-is-voter-suppression-low-turnout-by-design-in-the-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Voter Registration Is Voter Suppression: Low Turnout by Design in the USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Laurits<\/p>\n

May 8, 2018\u00a0(JohnLaurits.com)<\/p>\n

\n

\u200b\"Voter<\/p>\n

During 2016\u2019s\u00a0nominally democratic<\/em>\u00a0primaries, the voter-rolls \u2013\u00a0i.e.<\/em>\u00a0the lists of people who get to vote \u2013 were afflicted by a slew of mysterious errors and illegal purges in a number of states. As a result, millions who registered as democrats were unable to vote. Millions more independents (who make up a\u00a0majority of eligible voters<\/strong><\/a>) found they were disenfranchised in states where deadlines to register passed months before anyone even knew who the candidates were. New York, for example, excluded a mind-blowing\u00a02.9 million active voters<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from the primaries for not registering by a deadline 7 months beforehand, as well as\u00a0another 200,000<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0whom NYC election officials would later admit were illegally purged from voter-rolls. The worst voter suppression, however, is neither the purges nor the arbitrary placement of deadlines but the fact that the US forces its citizens to register before they can vote in the first place.<\/p>\n

The US Voter-Registration System:
\n<\/em><\/strong>A Costly Sham to Suppress Voters<\/i><\/h2>\n

Managing a good elections system is no easy task and the right solutions often differ depending on type of government, population size and distribution, transportation issues, funding, and so on. Because of this complexity, election-related problems can sometimes be much harder to solve than it may seem at first. The US voter-registration system\u00a0is not one of those problems<\/em>.\u00a0In fact, the US is the only developed nation \u2014 as well as one of the only countries in the world \u2014 that still foists the responsibility for voter registration on its citizens.<\/p>\n

Voter Turnout in the USA: Tragedy or Farce<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The estimated US voting-age population during the 2016 primaries was around 250 million\u00b9. Records show that\u00a0almost 17 million voters<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0picked the democratic candidate and\u00a0a bit over 14 million voters<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0picked the republican candidate. That means\u2026<\/p>\n

\\mathtt{\\frac{14,015,993}{250,055,734} = 0.056051 \\text{ or }\\approx5.6\\%}<\/span>2<\/span>5<\/span>0<\/span>,<\/span>0<\/span>5<\/span>5<\/span>,<\/span>7<\/span>3<\/span>4<\/span><\/span>1<\/span>4<\/span>,<\/span>0<\/span>1<\/span>5<\/span>,<\/span>9<\/span>9<\/span>3<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u200b<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>=<\/span>0<\/span>.<\/span>0<\/span>5<\/span>6<\/span>0<\/span>5<\/span>1<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>or<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u2248<\/span>5<\/span>.<\/span>6<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\\mathtt{\\frac{16,917,853}{250,055,734} = 0.06765 \\text{ or }\\approx6.8\\%}<\/span>2<\/span>5<\/span>0<\/span>,<\/span>0<\/span>5<\/span>5<\/span>,<\/span>7<\/span>3<\/span>4<\/span><\/span>1<\/span>6<\/span>,<\/span>9<\/span>1<\/span>7<\/span>,<\/span>8<\/span>5<\/span>3<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u200b<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>=<\/span>0<\/span>.<\/span>0<\/span>6<\/span>7<\/span>6<\/span>5<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>or<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u2248<\/span>6<\/span>.<\/span>8<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\\mathtt{5.6 + 6.8 = 12.4\\%}<\/span>5<\/span>.<\/span>6<\/span>+<\/span>6<\/span>.<\/span>8<\/span>=<\/span>1<\/span>2<\/span>.<\/span>4<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2026that\u00a0just 12.4% of 250 million voting-age US-Americans<\/em>\u00a0determined the two options that the rest of the nation had to choose from. Even if all the voters in both primaries are combined\u2026<\/p>\n

\\mathtt{\\frac{(30,633,131 + 31,183,841)}{250,055,734} = 0.24721 \\text{ or }\\approx24.7\\%}<\/span>2<\/span>5<\/span>0<\/span>,<\/span>0<\/span>5<\/span>5<\/span>,<\/span>7<\/span>3<\/span>4<\/span><\/span>(<\/span>3<\/span>0<\/span>,<\/span>6<\/span>3<\/span>3<\/span>,<\/span>1<\/span>3<\/span>1<\/span>+<\/span>3<\/span>1<\/span>,<\/span>1<\/span>8<\/span>3<\/span>,<\/span>8<\/span>4<\/span>1<\/span>)<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u200b<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>=<\/span>0<\/span>.<\/span>2<\/span>4<\/span>7<\/span>2<\/span>1<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>or<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u2248<\/span>2<\/span>4<\/span>.<\/span>7<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2026the result is still fewer than \u00bc of US voting-age citizens. This is the predictable result of such a system.<\/p>\n

\"Voter<\/a>In addition to the illegally purged and the\u00a0millions regularly disenfranchised<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by other registration errors, the system is\u00a0designed<\/em>\u00a0to exclude\u00a0the majority of US-Americans<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0registered as independents from the primaries.\u00a0\u200bIn this context, 12.4% is actually right on par. Even if there were no other problems (which there are<\/strong><\/a>), the fact that registration keeps most of the country from partaking in \u2018democracy\u2019 gets\u00a0pretty darn close<\/em>\u00a0to single-handedly defeating the whole purpose of holding elections in the first place.<\/p>\n

How Voter Registration Works\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>
\n(& Why It Doesn\u2019t in the US)<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Maintaining some kind of list or registry of voters is one of the core features needed to manage elections\u00b2 at a national level. As a\u00a0FairVote research report<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on the topic explains:<\/p>\n

Clean and complete voter rolls are [a] vital tool in every democracy: by confirming that citizens have met all the eligibility requirements and that each eligible citizen is registered to vote once and only once, the voter registration process ensures the validity of the vote and helps to confer legitimacy on the electoral process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before the digital age, there was a time when the best way to keep an up-to-date list of voters was to require everyone to fill out and submit paperwork to various regional authorities every few years. Processing millions of paper forms was a grueling yet necessary part of managing a national elections system. This type of system lead to a lot of errors, which is just what happens when vast, mostly unsupervised networks of underpaid clerks are asked to somehow turn a whole population\u2019s handwritten submissions into an up-to-date national registry of voters.<\/p>\n

Thanks to today\u2019s informational architecture, such arduous and inaccurate systems are now used in only\u00a0a handful of pseudo-democracies<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that continue to spurn the advances of the 21st century. Like Burundi. And the USA.<\/p>\n

Opt-In Self-Registration vs. Automatic Voter Registration<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Infographic,<\/a>In addition to reducing time and effort, modern automatic registries produce more accurate results. Digital registries can be updated automatically using data that is already being collected by civil registries like birth and death certificates or national healthcare records and social security. Whether conducted in the US or internationally, an overwhelming body of research shows that automatic systems are far more accurate compared to the self-initiated, opt-in US system.<\/p>\n

And as if having an accurate voter-registry were not enough of an upside, automatic universal registration of eligible citizens is\u00a0a lot cheaper, too<\/em>. According to the\u00a0ACE Electoral Knowledge Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00b3:<\/p>\n

Concerning the cost of voter lists, a main lesson learned from previous research (and still relevant) is that permanent registries promote both transparency and cost-effectiveness, particularly when they are periodically updated with corrections, additions and deletions without obliging voters to re-register.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The system of\u00a0voter-registration used in Canada<\/strong><\/a>, for example, costs 12 times less per-registered voter than the US system.<\/p>\n

Modern Automatic Registration Works<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Modern systems \u2014 like those nearly every stable country in the world use \u2014 result in much higher rates of registration among voting-age populations.\u00a0Study<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0study<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(after\u00a0study<\/strong><\/a>) has shown that wherever government assumes responsibility for registration by automatically adding voters as they come of age or become citizens, turnout is higher and more citizens are registered. For example, about 90% of the voting-age population (VAP) is\u00a0registered to vote<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in Canada, 91% in Indonesia, 93% in France, and 97% in Japan.<\/p>\n

And the US? According to the 2014 census, 64.6% or\u00a0just under 2\/3rds<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Self-Initiated, Opt-In System Is Just Awful
\n<\/strong>(& US Public Officials Damn-Well Know It)<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Comic<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Stolen without shame or regret from\u00a0Sidewalk Bubblegum<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It has been well-known for decades that the US voter-registration system is one of the glaringly obvious reasons that US elections are #1 at having the worst voter-turnout in the developed world. It was known 25 years ago when embarrassingly low voter-turnout forced congress to pass the\u00a01993 National Voter Registration Act<\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that created a standardized form and required states to offer registration at certain public offices, such as the DMV. While some improvement is better than none, it was clear to\u00a0a 2001 commission<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0chaired by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford that the NVRA had only scratched the surface of the problem. The commission bluntly concluded:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe registration laws in force throughout the United States are among the world\u2019s most demanding \u2026 [and are ] one reason why voter turnout in the United States is near the bottom of the developed world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the success of the US campaign to spread \u2018democracy\u2019 all over Africa and the Middle East in the 17 years since, thus far the same politicians seem to be incapable of bringing it home.<\/p>\n

Not Abolishing Self-Registration Is Voter Suppression<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7<\/a>If the failure to fix the US registration system was only due to congress being a birdbrained\u00a0horde of nitwits who genuinely were unable to find a workable solution, such inaction might be forgivable \u2014 but the truth is more disheartening.\u200b There are too many alternatives that are so well-known and readily available that it would be ludicrous to believe more than a few of them give a damn about the integrity of US elections or about democracy itself for that matter. Anyone who can\u00a0use a search engine<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0can verify that plenty of far better systems are\u00a0currently in use all over the world<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It is\u00a0a fact<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that self-registration results in lower voter-turnout compared to modern registration systems and it is also\u00a0a fact<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that automatic registries are\u00a0more accurate, easier to maintain<\/em>, and\u00a0cheaper<\/em>. And in light of these facts, a person has to wonder \u2014 why would elected officials be so resistant to fixing voter registration \u2014 ? Why would they not implement any of the pre-tested, ready-made, more accurate systems at a fraction of the cost? Is it because US politicians want less accuracy? More difficulty? Or higher costs? Or is it that they want fewer voters participating in the political process?<\/p>\n

What seems more likely?<\/p>\n

In solidarity,<\/em>
\nJohn Laurits<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Laurits May 8, 2018\u00a0(JohnLaurits.com) \u200b During 2016\u2019s\u00a0nominally democratic\u00a0primaries, the voter-rolls \u2013\u00a0i.e.\u00a0the lists of people who get to vote \u2013 were afflicted by a slew of mysterious errors and illegal purges in a number of states. As a result, millions who registered as democrats were unable to vote. Millions… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8589,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588\/revisions\/8589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}