Posted on 03/17/2015 9:30:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
So I’m guessing this was supposed to be good news, right? In Oregon, you will now be registered to vote pretty much automatically whenever you have any interaction with the DMV. That’s the new initiative being signed into law by newly inducted Governor Kate Brown (the nation’s first openly bisexual Governor!) and considered to be her first signature piece of legislation.
Sweeping first-in-the nation legislation making voter registration automatic in Oregon was signed into law on Monday by Governor Kate Brown, potentially adding 300,000 new voters to state rolls.
The so-called Motor Voter legislation will use state Department of Motor Vehicles data to automatically register eligible voters whose information is contained in the DMV system, with a 21-day opt-out period for those who wish to be taken off the registry.
Supporters say the legislation’s goal is to keep young voters, students and working families who move often from losing their right to vote. Republican lawmakers, who unanimously voted against the bill, complain it puts Oregonians’ privacy at risk.
There are all sorts of things not to like here, many of which have been pointed out by Republican legislators in Oregon who universally refused to support the bill. The original “Motor Voter” requirements implemented at the federal level in the early nineties, while containing some significant flaws, at least had the virtue of an ostensibly noble goal. It gave people the option (which is the key word here) to take care of registering to vote at the same time that they were taking care of some other business with the state rather than going to a different location for an entirely separate process.
The Oregon legislation goes much further. Rather than an option to register, you supposedly will have an option to “opt out” of registering. That’s assuming a small postcard arrives successfully in your mail box, you notice it, remember to fill it out, send it in and somebody actually processes the request correctly. And let’s face it… the people being targeted here are probably at just about the lowest end of the election knowledge scale if they didn’t even realize you had to register in order to vote. It’s not hard to imagine some of them assuming that the postcard is some sort of spam and just tossing it in the circular file.
“But,” some of you may wonder, “what’s the big deal about being registered if you didn’t intend to? It’s not like they’re making you vote.”
Good question. Not everyone is “on the grid” in terms of public data searches, sometimes for very good reasons. As just one example, victims of domestic abuse often wish to hide their current location from their abusers, but a simple desire for privacy is justification enough. Once you’ve been automatically registered to vote, you are in a database, and it’s often not the most secure thing in the world. For example, here in New York, there is a website you can visit and if you know somebody’s first name, last name and date of birth you can click one button and have their address. Pretty convenient for the stalker inclined web browser, no?
There are also considerations about voter fraud with the Oregon scheme. They claim that the database of drivers which is being tapped for the registration “includes information on whether a person is a citizen.” I’m sure that makes everyone feel better. Given how fired up Oregon has been to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, there’s just all sorts of opportunities for things to go wrong.
What problem were they trying to solve here, anyway? I don’t believe there should be barriers for anyone to vote if they are legally entitled to do so and wish to. But shouldn’t there be some effort involved to demonstrate that you’re actually aware of the process and have an interest in taking part? Was the existing system holding so many people back from registering that this was required?
Don’t worry. If you don’t want to vote the democrats have you covered.
This will eventually evolve into a fine and or punishment for NOT voting..................
Automatically registered if you get an ID (drivers license), but no id required to vote.
Translation:
If you don’t vote someone will vote for you.
Welcome to jury duty.
Do you have to register as R or D to vote in the primaries in Oregon? Could this scheme have something to do with a matching funds formula?
I can see this making vote selling a big deal.
You can “opt out” if you want ... BUT REALLY ... it should be the RESPONSIBILITY of every citizen to vote, at least that’s what I was taught growing up ... :-) ...
Oregon has closed Primaries.
It really is just a matter of stealing elections with bogus votes from people who don’t vote anyway. They will be voting in every election whether they died or not...........
I am of the opinion that each state should be required to maintain one set of voter rolls for the state elections and a separate set of rolls for the federal elections.
States can do what ever they want with the state voter rolls.
Federal rolls should be:
- restricted to competent Citizens who are not in prison or on parole
- age 18 (I would prefer 21) and older
- require proof of residence and citizenship to register
- registration cut off during the month of November
- rolls to be cleared (everyone removed) 30 days after the inauguration of a new President. This would require everyone to re-register.
- proof of ID required to vote
- mail in ballot granted only to those that can show cause (shut in, out of state, etc)
- voter rolls checked against IRS and Social security records to confirm that no one is registered in multiple states.
I’d be curious how this is set up to omit convicted felons and foreign national residents — especially the honest ones who know they are ineligible to vote and have no interest in doing so.
That move guarantees Oregon will send democrats to DC forever.
I can see this as becoming ‘proxy’ voting by default. If you don’t actually vote, then they will count you as a (D) no matter what..................
I get mad at people for NOT voting. There are people around me that I know didn’t vote and I complain to them about it! I was always taught that it is one’s RESPONSIBILITY to vote, as a citizen. But, I don’t think someone should be fined for it. They should be shamed and criticized strongly for not voting!
Absolutely. Anyone who has access to those names will have access to “their”
votes.
Better ideas being pushed in the Michigan legislature. No more winner take all presidential elections that are decided by Detroit and Flint.
House Bill 4310: Pro-rate Michigan’s electoral college presidential votes
Introduced by Rep. Cindy Gamrat (R) on March 5, 2015, to require that at political party conventions one presidential elector from each congressional district and two electors at large be chosen. The elector ultimately chose for each district would the one whose party’s candidate for president won in that congressional district. The at-large candidates elected would be, as now, those who belonged to the political party whose presidential candidate won statewide. This would end the current “winner take all” system.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=168841
Senate Bill 197: Pro-rate Michigan’s electoral college presidential votes
Introduced by Sen. Dave Hildenbrand (R) on March 11, 2015, to end the current winner-take-all system of allocating Michigan’s presidential electors, and instead pro-rate the state’s electoral college votes on the basis of the state’s popular vote totals.
http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=168894
What gets me angry is people who I know don’t vote then bitch about the elections for 4 years......................
You don’t have to show up ... you just mail it in ... :-) ...
All elections in Oregon are exclusively “by mail”.
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