Our Civic Duty

[Lord Zardoz]

Fair point RangerReg. Though when I used the word viable, I meant that in terms of parties that are able to reliably get at least a few seats in Parliament and / or run in every part of the country. (The Greens run in every riding, but have yet to get a single MP elected. The Bloc Quebecois get plenty of MP's elected, but only run within Quebec). As far as I know, outside the Democrats and the Republicans, there really arent any political parties in the United States that I have heard of which can manage the same kind of thing.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Ranger REG]

Fair point RangerReg. Though when I used the word viable, I meant that in terms of parties that are able to reliably get at least a few seats in Parliament and / or run in every part of the country. (The Greens run in every riding, but have yet to get a single MP elected. The Bloc Quebecois get plenty of MP's elected, but only run within Quebec). As far as I know, outside the Democrats and the Republicans, there really arent any political parties in the United States that I have heard of which can manage the same kind of thing.

The others tried, though.

 

[Umbran]

Cut the political commentary, folks. Do not expect to be warned again.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Why do people have to register to vote in the US? Does the US not have a registration of address?

In Germany, whenever you move, you (should) register your new address with the local registration office (this is also important for taxes, and the information will be updated in your personal ID). This way, whenever an election is coming, the voters are known and are personally addressed. We get a card that explains how to register and perform for an "absentee vote", and that describes location and time frame when to vote.

I suppose this kind of address registration is uncommon in the US?

 

[Umbran]

I suppose this kind of address registration is uncommon in the US?

The US does not have a central registry for that information, no. Voting registration (and many voting rules) are handled on the state level, not the federal level. Typically, a state simply has a separate voting registration system to handle it.

 

[Thunderfoot]

To piggy-back Umbran, not only do we not have a centralized agency for registration of information, to create one would probably be looked upon in an un-flattering light here. Heck, censuses are hard enough to accurately run in the US as participation is no longer mandatory (and were often ignored when they were.)

Also, as far as election proceedings, as was discussed in a thread a few months back, we don't even have similar processes state to state and in some cases county to county within states. But, it works (mostly) and is unlikely to be replaced anytime soon. There has always been talk of switching to a 'true' democracy (everyone votes on all issues) or even straight popular election, but as far as I know (if anyone has any other info, please feel free to dispute me. ), it has never been seriously considered.

Could you imagine 300,000,000+ people voting on EVERY issue as it came up. We wouldn't getting anything done but voting.