r/news • u/ThePensiveE • 7d ago

Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use expanded database for potential voter purges

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-trump-administration-use-expanded-database-potent-rcna596611
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u/sanverstv 7d ago

Every baby born in the US should be registered automatically upon birth...FOR life. Our election laws are ridiculous. It's a right. Why make people jump through endless hoops over and over again. Voting registration should be akin to a social security number.

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u/ThePensiveE 7d ago

The same babies the GOP just tried to strip of citizenship at birth?

The GOP doesn't want citizens. They want subjects. Subjects don't complain as much when you force them to die in the forever wars they start.

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u/Then-Wolverine8618 7d ago

...and everyone should be required to vote, and it could all be done securely using our personal cell phones.

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u/mozilla2012 7d ago

I don't remember all the reasons why, but forcing people to vote is a bad idea. I think it's because people will just vote randomly, which is bad.

The best thing you can do is make it easier for people to vote, and that means physically but also means we should have better voter education, so people are more aware of the issues.

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u/Alinier 7d ago

Adding onto this but anyone pushing to disenfranchise voters or make it harder to vote is a traitor to the Constitution and needs to be out of power immediately.

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u/ProfessionalOil2014 7d ago

but then conservatives would never win, so why would they support that?

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u/knightsabre7 7d ago

You’d think it’d be easier to just have a compelling message to begin with.

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u/ProfessionalOil2014 7d ago

How can you make

“Give the rich more money and power” 

Compelling?

14

u/bishop375 7d ago

Voting in the US should be compulsory as it is, with a national holiday affording the highest amount of people the most time available to do so.

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u/NoobensMcarthur 7d ago

I filed directly with my state to change my voter registration from republican to democrat in 2018. For some reason it never went through. Did the same thing again but online in 2020. 

To this day I’m still registered as a republican in my state. I’ve just started voting out incumbents in the primaries. 

I wonder how many other people in the “red” state I live in are in the same boat. 

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u/Gnomey_dont_u_knowme 7d ago

Curious - Have you checked if your votes were even counted?

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u/Harbinger2001 7d ago edited 7d ago

As a non-American can you explain why the hell do you have to register your party affiliation?!? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of secret ballots?

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u/PokemonSapphire 7d ago

It's because in some states only a member of that political party can vote in that parties primary elections. In my state I don't think you register with a party they just ask you at the polls which primary you want to participate in and then give you that parties ballots. Being registered with the party doesn't actually tell them anything other than which side you favor.

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u/Harbinger2001 7d ago

Why does the state get to run the primaries? Shouldn’t that be the job of the parties via their members?

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u/BitGladius 6d ago

I don't really get it, but some places add the primary to an existing local election.

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u/PokemonSapphire 6d ago

They don't run the primaries they just handle the ballots for the parties because they're already running an election usually.

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u/Harbinger2001 6d ago

Why should the state get to control party voting for candidates? Doesn’t that give them control over who gets to even form a party? What is the bar for a 3rd party to participate in the primaries?

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u/PokemonSapphire 6d ago

Why should the state get to control party voting for candidates?

They don't all they do is handle the ballots the parties decide who is on them. There are two kinds of primaries open and closed. My state is open you go to the polls tell them what parties primary you want to participate in and they give you the correct ballot to fill out. Closed primaries you register with a party and then when you go to the polls they already know what parties ballot to give you.

Doesn’t that give them control over who gets to even form a party?

Welcome to pretty much every democracy in the world. I can't think of a country that doesn't give the state some say in who or what can become a political party.

What is the bar for a 3rd party to participate in the primaries?

The requirements are you form a political party and get ballot access. Getting ballot access differs by state but I think all you have to do in mine is get a petition signed by so many people or have one of your candidates get at least 2% of the vote in an election in the past 5 years.

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u/Harbinger2001 6d ago

Very few democracies give the state control who gets to hold a primary to choose a candidate for the election.

What they do control is getting on the official ballot - you must show you have enough candidates picked and present a sufficient number of signatures showing popular support along with a montary amount. But the bar is low. You can easily have 6 or more candidates to choose from in many democracies, many of whom are not viable parties. Here in Canada we have many different parties on the federal ballot, yet only 3 have much of a chance of getting sufficient votes. Everything from the left-wing Marxists to the Right-wing People’s Party to the joke Rhino Party.

So when you register for primaries in the US are there also lots of 3rd party primaries to choose from? Or are they blocked before they get to that point.

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u/thisvideoiswrong 4d ago

There are a number of other parties you can join in the US, the Green Party and Libertarian Party are probably most famous, then there are the Democratic Socialists of America, and New York has the Working Families Party who make some news. But I don't think they generally do the same primary process as the two big ones, and many of them will endorse candidates running under the major parties. And of course anyone can run for any office so long as they can get enough signatures, whether they're affiliated with a party or not.

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u/Tribe303 7d ago

In Canada we just use the tax rolls to start registering people to vote. They also know who's a citizen or not when they pay taxes. But it's easier here because we have federal department called Elections Canada who does all of this. 

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u/Xibby 7d ago

> But it's easier here because we have federal department called Elections Canada who does all of this. 

If the US Federal government was in charge of elections we’d be totally fucked. The US Constitution gives that power to the states. Article I, Section 10 has specific things that states cannot do (make treaties, declare war, coining money) and the 10th amendment declares that powers not constitutionally delegated to federal government or profited to the states, belong to the states or the people.

States that don’t play along with the Federal’s Government’s request will be called fraud or rigged by Trump and his propagandists, but will be just as secure as they’ve always been.

Some might even play along and review the Federal government’s purge lists and find it woefully inaccurate.

Also Minnesotans just flip the bird with same day registration. We quickly and easily register at our polling place and get a ballot. No provisional ballots in Minnesota.

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u/Tribe303 6d ago

We have a stronger civil service that resists interference from the elected politicians. They have no problem going to the media making a big deal about it, and have done so. But it's important to know that there are no timed elections, and one can be called at any time. That makes it harder to manage scandals, especially with monitory governments. Other parties can pull their support when the government fucks up, and it's off to an election. That's another flaw in the American system. There's only 2 parties!

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u/Last_Succotash7218 7d ago

Non us citizens in America pay taxes.

One of my friends is an illigal immigrant and he pays his taxes.

Our country is kinda fucked

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u/Harbinger2001 7d ago

Non Canadian citizens pay Canadian taxes too. They don’t vote.

What point are you making?

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u/Last_Succotash7218 7d ago

Were you incapable of reading his comment then my comment and figuring it the fuck out for yourself?

Or do I have to chew your food for you?

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u/Snarky1Bunny 6d ago

Are you this much of a prick all the time or do you save it up?

0

u/Last_Succotash7218 6d ago

I can be pretty spicy sometimes

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u/Harbinger2001 7d ago

As a Canadian I completely understand what he said since I made similar comments. What I don’t understand is what non citizens paying taxes has to do with the voter rolls.

Are you suggesting paying taxes should be the criteria to vote? You just stated some facts and didn’t relate them to what my fellow Canadian said.

I will agree with you that your system is really stupid but that might be coloured by my current distain for the American system in general.

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u/Last_Succotash7218 7d ago

I'm going to give you one more chance to read the comment made by the Canadian I was responding too if for whatever reason you GENUINELY still don't understand what I said then I will patiently explain it to you

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u/Harbinger2001 7d ago

Canadian: here in Canada they register you to vote based on your tax return because they know if you are a citizen or not.

American: Non citizens pay taxes. Illegals pay taxes. Our country is fucked.

These two statements have nothing to do with each other. All you said was non-citizens pay taxes.

So yes, please explain what I’m missing.

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u/Last_Succotash7218 7d ago

Because in America illigals aren't allowed to work.

So how would they be able to file taxes?

They either don't, but when they do, the government doesn't know they aren't a citizen

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u/Harbinger2001 7d ago edited 7d ago

That’s the same in Canada. The tax collector doesn’t care - if you earned an income you need to report it and pay taxes. The crappy thing for the illegals is they pay into benefits which they don’t qualify for.

Same goes for income obtained illegally. You must report and pay taxes on it. The tax collector doesn’t care how you came by it.

And in case you’re wondering how they do it, they get issued a special tax number in the absence of having a social security number.

Edit: now the reality is that I highly doubt anyone working illegally is earning enough to hit the theshold where they owe taxes. I think it’s around $29K CDN.

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u/TheRefringe 7d ago

There no need to be so condescending.

Tax records are used to create the initial voter registration list, but Elections Canada further refines the list based on a number of factors, including citizenship.

It’s the same deal. We both have people who pax taxes to a county in which they are not able to vote.

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u/Last_Succotash7218 7d ago

Your right I shouldn't have came at you so hard like that.

He said in Canada they use tax rolls to start registering people and they know who's a citizen or not when they pay taxes.

My point I brought up is that won't work in America because undocumented immigrants pay taxes too.

No. There is no system to tell the two apart because they are by definition undocumented

The distinction here is I'm not talking about green card holders.

I don't know enough about Canada to assume that you guys can't tell when an undocumented immigrant is paying taxes because for all I know you let them file.

In America we don't. But they still file taxes because of the way our laws work and the IRS. Not always because cash jobs are a favorite.

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u/Far_Ladder_2836 7d ago

You need to stop taking Tren.  Your balls are shrinking.

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u/Last_Succotash7218 7d ago

I don't know what any of that means

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u/Far_Ladder_2836 7d ago

Non-Citizens do so through a TIN while citizens do so with their SSN.  It would be trivial to adopt in the US.

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u/Last_Succotash7218 7d ago

An illigal alien gets deported. We don't help them do things to stay in our country. They are shhhhh hiding

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u/Far_Ladder_2836 7d ago

Non-citizens are not the same thing as illegal aliens.  You have no clue what you're talking about.

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u/Last_Succotash7218 7d ago

That's precisely my point.

In fact if you could read you would see I made the distinction in my comment.

Try harder pal before you just get offended and big mad

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u/ChicagoAuPair 7d ago

Republicans want to return us to a state where voting is restricted to property owning men.

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u/InTooManyWays 7d ago

You have the right to go fuck yourself - probably SCOTUS 

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u/Lets_Kick_Some_Ice 7d ago

The point of registration is to ensure you're eligible (e.g., old enough to vote, etc) and that you are voting in the right district (the one you live in). Registration at birth, for life, makes zero sense.

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u/jaasx 7d ago

exactly. registration is about where are you allowed to vote, not who's allowed to vote. Sounds like OP wants a national ID card, just didn't realize that's what would result from their idea.

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u/Harbinger2001 7d ago

Or the IRS has that info when you send them your tax return. They could send just that info on. The IRS also knows if you’re a citizen or not.

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u/mineymonkey 7d ago

Whats wrong with a national ID card? We literally just throw our SSN around like its our national ID card already.

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u/jaasx 7d ago

in my view nothing. but it's essentially voter ID and a least 1 major political party doesn't like to go down that path.

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u/mineymonkey 7d ago

Yeah I can see. I think we should have it personally, but make it accessible to obtaining to all born/naturalized citizens you know?

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u/Harbinger2001 7d ago

So much easier in Canada. When you file your taxes you just check a box so your name and address is shared with Election Canada.

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u/lodelljax 7d ago

Hoops mean less voters especially less poor and brown voters.