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Unknown number of Texas voter registrations went unprocessed due to DPS error

106 points · 195 comments · hn_acker

  1. agos · · focus · HN ↗
    the entire concept of "voter registration" (and associated shenanigans) is so alien to my European brain that I fail to see any reason why the richest country in the world does things this way other than voter suppression. What am I missing?
    1. the_doctah · · focus · HN ↗

      [dead]

      1. crote · · focus · HN ↗
        Surely the government already knows who is a citizen (otherwise it would not be able to stop noncitizens from registering), so surely it would be trivial for the government to use this list of citizens to send out ballots?

        Citizen baby is born? Add them to the list of citizens. Citizen dies? Remove them from the list of citizens. Citizen moves? Have them inform their new municipality about their change of address - which they'll probably need to do anyways for tax and mail reasons.

        1. jtbayly · · focus · HN ↗
          Wait until you hear about all the dead people receiving benefits.

          But seriously, your assumptions about how the USA works are just wrong. Voting is not handled at the federal level. Citizenship is.

          1. crote · · focus · HN ↗
            I know, I was making fun of it. It's a "'no way to solve this', says only country which hasn't solved it yet" kind of problem which exists solely due to American exceptionalism.
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