https://www.salon.com/2024/07/17/campaign-sues-gretchen-whitmer-to-block-michigan-veteran-registration-sites/?in_brief=true
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If your vote didn't count or matter, they wouldn't try making it harder to do so. And this is a step to block making voting easier for everyone in Michigan.
Vote 🔵🔵🔵
Why can't I vote online then according to your logic. Would be easier for sure. Would allow me to confirm my vote as well. Sounds like Democrats don't think votes matter (according to your logic)
AT&T and Disney both had huge data breaches. You think the U.S. government would do better?
Voting online would be a cybersecurity nightmare.
But Michigan wants to make it easier, by allowing people to vote at VA offices. But of course, Reps are blocking it.
I mean I was just making a joke. In truth, the GOP wants to limit and restrict voting access as much as possible because statistically it is those that would vote against them that are affected when voting opportunities are restricted. Trump doesn't want just anybody to be able to vote. The fewer people able to actually vote, the better the outcome for the Republican party.
How about, and work with me on this: 1. Every citizen over 18 y.o. is automatically registered to vote. 2. DItch 1st past the post elections and instead have some form of ranked choice voting. I know, so radical, but that's my solution.
Nah optional is good but at least make it a holiday so everyone has the option to vote. Many don't because they're working all day and the nearest voting center is two hours away because Republicans closed down as many voting centers as they possibly could and waiting in line to vote takes hours.
Honestly, they're real shit people constantly trying to stop people from voting. Republicans hate it when people vote.
optional voting
Republicans hate when people vote and try to avoid having people vote
The lines are a problem that can be dealt with. I fail to see why optional voting is considered ideal given the second quote.
Fuck that. Mandatory.
Being a citizen isn't free. I expect the absolute best from my government ( lots of work to go on their part), and I accept the personal responsibility of being a proper citizen. (Pay taxes, sit as a juror, vote, etc).
I like the idea on the surface, but no, I don't want to be forced to vote for a few reasons:
Making election day a Federal holiday and guaranteeing everyone has the option to vote would be more effective and have a better outcome.
Edit: Several replies are basically saying the same thing: you can turn in an empty ballot. But the exact same thing can be accomplished much easier by staying at home. You can't force people to go somewhere, or even mail in a ballot... they have a hard enough time getting people to do the census. Also, a candidate such as trump would refuse the results of any election they lost that didn't have 100% turnout, especially if the margin of loss is less than the percentage that didn't vote.
Again, I do like the spirit of the idea, but in order to make it work it would take more effort than it is worth since staying home accomplishes the same thing as a blank ballot.
I wouldn't mind a default vote option.
Like when I hand in a ballot, my vote is exactly as I submit, to include abstentions.
But if I don't turn in a ballot for any election I'm eligible to vote in, my vote just defaults to a solid down-ballot of the party I'm registered as, or following a custom party ranking to auto-fill ranked choice ballots.
A "None of the above" option would resolve most of those issues.
If "None of the above" wins, a snap election is called a short time later (three months?), and no candidate who ran in that election is allowed to run in the snap election.
No no, just make non-votes into a vote of no confidence. No ballot means "none of the above/fuck off"
If the voter participation rate is ever lower than 50% they have to redo the election.
Trump campaign: "[Whitmer] undermines the integrity of elections by increasing the opportunity for individuals to register to vote even though they are ineligible to do so"
???
There is a myth strewn about by Republicans that Democrats encourage non-citizens to vote. There is absolutely no evidence of any coordinated campaign to do this, but of you ask most Republicans they insist it is true. So they equate any voter registration campaign by Democrats to "illegals voting in droves".
JD Vance abridged: "I am a Veteran, my mommy was poor and swears a lot, I am a 'Hill-Billy' like all of you, I was a Marine."
The GOP: "We want to be associated with marines, we don't want them to vote or be alive."
You know you’re popular when you try to restrict how many people can say whether they like you.
Hmm. I'd think that Trump would tend to do better that Whitmer among vets. I guess that that might vary by state.
kagis
Okay, here's a Pew article that's just a couple months old.
Partisanship of military veterans
Voters who are military veterans favor the Republican Party: 63% identify with or lean toward the GOP, while far fewer (35%) are Democrats or Democratic leaners. Bar chart showing that among registered voters, military veterans are more likely to associate with the GOP by a wide margin. The Republican Party’s relative advantage among veterans is seen among both older and younger voters. Aamong Black voters there is no difference in the partisanship of veterans and non-veterans.
Non-veteran voters tilt more Democratic: About half (51%) associate with the Democratic Party, while 46% affiliate with the Republican Party.
I suppose that there might be more going on here than just that. I understand that a higher proportion of older voters tend to vote, and older voters also tend to vote more-Republican so generic get-out-the-vote efforts might favor the Democrats.
looks further
Ah. It's not just veterans.
Disabled people:
Michigan Rehabilitation Services of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Employment and Training;
Bureau of Services for Blind Persons of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Employment and Training;
Low income housing:
Michigan State Housing Development Authority.
etc.
There's nothing quite as American as going out and intentionally voting against your own interests.
Kagi is a search engine. Like "googles" for "uses Google to search".
I started using them a while back because they make their money via user subscriptions rather than data-mining users.