Mildly Infuriating

It's by design. We could make it easier, but certain groups benefit from making it difficult.

It's wild.

There are some local and state governments trying to pass automatic voter registration, but it's an uphill battle, not unlike most things that would generally benefit the public good in this country.

There's never been a United States ID card, for... reasons. As a Californian, I could get a California ID card, at the same place I got my California Driver's License, if I didn't intend to drive. The forms have the option of adding Voter Registration using the same information (birth certificate, proof of residence) at the same time. But some states make it all much more complicated.

As a European, the whole registering to vote thing is honestly one of the wildest parts of the US elections to me. It’s so unnecessary complicated and prone to errors/manipulation.

...what the electorate consider a bug the politicians consider a feature...

So… I’m in Texas , been here a long time.

most ballot counts in the primaries and general are counted by secret software and hardware run by ultra conservative families the last 20 plus years. Recounts are not allowed and exit polls not used anymore because of unpredictability.

Nobody cares, no political party wants to change : not a topic in forums anywhere, even in conspiracy minded chat rooms, and it’s been this way forever ( since before 2000).

There is a ton of crazy that is ignored .

I’ve seen how the system works, I’ve been at the county chair level. Nobody will criticize it . There is a quiet culture of people knowing it’s invalid but decide to leave it be.

It's overblown. It's mostly propaganda.

I just have to show up with my ID

My ID is good for 5 years, and I am required to update it within 60 days of changing residences. Every time I've renewed or updated it, they have asked me if I wanted to register or update my voter registration. My registration is updated every time I vote, and I don't get de-registered unless I skip voting for about a decade straight, without re-registering when I renew my ID card.

ALL of the problems with voter registration are about people who either can't or won't get or renew their ID card. Every time you read about voter registration issues in the US, you should imagine going to your polling station without a current ID card.

It's so unnecessary complicated and prone to errors/manipulation

That's why it exists - to make it more inconvenient for people (especially in certain demographics) to vote.

the sound bites you hear about voting are intentionally misleading: you have to show up with an id to vote here too and that's not where to controversy lies; but the soundbites are setup to make it sound like it is to engender the reaction you've shared.

the controversy is registering to vote; not voting; and the conservative states intentionally make registering as heavily bureaucratic as possible in the hopes of minimizing the number of people who can successfully finish to process of registration.

they've also dedicated hundreds of millions on dollars to understand and enact policies to keep the poor and minority groups from voting.

usually democrats sit back and let republicans openly do it, but sometimes democrats do it themselves; the democratic governor of california just made automatic voter registration illegal; just as the conservative states do.

Yeah but we have voter id. And for some reason Americans think it is unreasonable to have to have a government issued ID as this would disenfranchise all the people that don't have an ID... Which I think is also weird. Just make IDs accessible to citizens at low costs and implement voterID across the board.

Depends on the country though. In France you must be registered to vote (you're assigned a specific voting office). It's a single registration foe everything, not for each vote

Although the process is online, and takes like 5mins.

You also get a voting card, but it's technically optional, it just speeds up the process in the voting office.

Imagine you moved countries, and were entitled to vote in both.

You have to tell the new country you exist there.

That's the most common failure mode in the US, when you move states or even counties and there's a miscommunication or lack of communication between where you came from and where you are. There is no top level federal voter database.

There are other issues, but this is the most common.

You don't vote at a federal level, you vote at a state level, for federal stuff. (And state/local stuff)

As a European, the whole registering to vote thing is honestly one of the wildest parts of the US elections to me. It’s so unnecessary complicated and prone to errors/manipulation. I just have to show up with my ID, doesn’t matter if it’s for the EU parliament or the local city senate.

I see comments like this a lot. Most important and apparently most difficult for Europeans (and others but it's almost always Europeans) to understand is that the US is a very large country, made up of 50 semi-independent states, each with its own government and laws-- about many things, not just elections. So that's why things are more complex here--we're not a small monolithic nation with one single, centralized government and set of laws that apply to everyone no matter where in the country they live.

Each US State runs its own elections; a person obviously can't be allowed to vote in more than one state. Since people can move from one state to another at any time, and even have residences in more than one state at the same time (such as college students and well-off people), it's necessary to register with the state you will be voting in, so that you are officially able to vote in that state and no other.

update response to the replies: Funny, the replies to this post comparing the situation to that of their country with the EU is basically the relationship I was trying to explain, yet they think they have somehow refuted what I said, when actually they validated what I said. Here's what's really "wild": First you call our system stupid, then when I explain our system to you, you say, "But that's just like our system!" and then downvote me for making you realize that what you called stupid is what you also have. 😄

Read the original comment condescendingly asking "Why do you have to register to vote?" yet they are also registered to vote in their own country, but don't even realize it because it was done automatically for them as a citizen. Your government has to track who is eligible to vote[1] and therefore in EU elections as well, one way or another, even if you don't use the word "registered" for it.

BTW, Many US States also automatically register their residents to vote (though a person can optionally refuse that); other US states expect you to register for it yourself (perhaps some European countries too?). Each state makes its own laws about that. Once registered in a state, we can also vote in our Federal elections, just like you can vote in EU elections.

[1] Example: Germany voter eligibility:

Generally, to be allowed to vote in Germany, you need to be a German citizen who is at least 18 years old. You must also have been officially registered in the place where you’re voting, such as Berlin, for at least three months, and you must not be excluded from voting for other reasons (for example, if a court took away your right to vote because you were deemed legally incapable of making your own decisions).