I dont like it. This coupled with the voting age seems like a knee jerk reaction in response to reform. I wonder if these changes would’ve been made if they were still enjoying a majority vote.
As long as this doesn’t lead to compulsory voting. Not voting is also a legitimate choice as is being completely uninterested.
Standby for comments explaining why making it easier to vote is a bad thing.
Good. This should be the first step towards increasing voter participation.
It can be followed by compulsory voting, with an option to vote for none of the above on the ballot, and ways to make voting easier, such as easier postal voting, as well as online voting.
Good now get rid of the photo ID requirement
From the article:
“At the moment, everyone needs to fill in an individual voter registration application at least 12 days before an election.”
No we don’t. For the vast majority of established voters already on the electoral roll our registration just rolls forward with an annual check from the local council of registration details, not linked to any election. By default there’s no need to take any action approaching an election to be able to vote, unless you need a one-off postal vote.
I don’t see how I should put much credence in a proposal from an author who doesn’t seem to understand how voting usually works in the UK.
The proposal to automatically register voters by trawling through other records is typically seen by privacy campaigners to be unwanted snooping. For privacy it’s regarded to be better to deal with each official function separately so if you want to vote you apply to your electoral registration officer, not have it pop out of some other interaction with government.
The existing annual registration checks already enquire about 16 or 17 year olds so they will be pre-registered in time for their 18th birthday. So registration is already in place for 16/17 year olds living in families. How many groups of people is this proposal actually going to benefit?
So many insanely ignorant non voters here who think politics happens in a vacuum and does not affect them. Who gets into power changes *everything*. Don’t say “not voting is a choice too” unless you don’t care about anything whatsoever in your life, which obviously isn’t possible. Fucking vote.
Hilarious people claiming that compulsory voting is going to cause all these issues when it has delivered incredibly stable governance for the last 120 years in Australia. It also generally kills off the majority of fruit cake ideas because they can’t get central appeal
You might even get a democracy sausage out of it
What’s even the point of registering then?
As long as they don’t change the rules for who’s eligible then it’s fine.
It will be interesting to see that if auto-registration takes place, whether postal voting and consequential voter fraud increases.
Now thats an awful idea and definitely not going to get corrupted…
It should be compulsory in my view. The amount of people who don’t vote then complain about the government or local council.
But there should be box for abstain
So even those who don’t intend to vote will be registered automatically. This will be abused no doubt
Part of the democratic process is excluding lazy people. If u can’t be bothered to register to vote then you don’t deserve a voice in the political process. It’s not hard to check if you’re registered.
Can we please just have an actual population register. It would solve so many problems.
Digital voting, mandatory voting, proportional representation, holiday for voting.
19 comments
I dont like it. This coupled with the voting age seems like a knee jerk reaction in response to reform. I wonder if these changes would’ve been made if they were still enjoying a majority vote.
As long as this doesn’t lead to compulsory voting. Not voting is also a legitimate choice as is being completely uninterested.
Standby for comments explaining why making it easier to vote is a bad thing.
Good. This should be the first step towards increasing voter participation.
It can be followed by compulsory voting, with an option to vote for none of the above on the ballot, and ways to make voting easier, such as easier postal voting, as well as online voting.
Good now get rid of the photo ID requirement
From the article:
“At the moment, everyone needs to fill in an individual voter registration application at least 12 days before an election.”
No we don’t. For the vast majority of established voters already on the electoral roll our registration just rolls forward with an annual check from the local council of registration details, not linked to any election. By default there’s no need to take any action approaching an election to be able to vote, unless you need a one-off postal vote.
I don’t see how I should put much credence in a proposal from an author who doesn’t seem to understand how voting usually works in the UK.
The proposal to automatically register voters by trawling through other records is typically seen by privacy campaigners to be unwanted snooping. For privacy it’s regarded to be better to deal with each official function separately so if you want to vote you apply to your electoral registration officer, not have it pop out of some other interaction with government.
The existing annual registration checks already enquire about 16 or 17 year olds so they will be pre-registered in time for their 18th birthday. So registration is already in place for 16/17 year olds living in families. How many groups of people is this proposal actually going to benefit?
So many insanely ignorant non voters here who think politics happens in a vacuum and does not affect them. Who gets into power changes *everything*. Don’t say “not voting is a choice too” unless you don’t care about anything whatsoever in your life, which obviously isn’t possible. Fucking vote.
Now do mandatory voting!!
Next step: [VOTING SAUSAGES](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage)
Hilarious people claiming that compulsory voting is going to cause all these issues when it has delivered incredibly stable governance for the last 120 years in Australia. It also generally kills off the majority of fruit cake ideas because they can’t get central appeal
You might even get a democracy sausage out of it
What’s even the point of registering then?
As long as they don’t change the rules for who’s eligible then it’s fine.
It will be interesting to see that if auto-registration takes place, whether postal voting and consequential voter fraud increases.
Now thats an awful idea and definitely not going to get corrupted…
It should be compulsory in my view. The amount of people who don’t vote then complain about the government or local council.
But there should be box for abstain
So even those who don’t intend to vote will be registered automatically. This will be abused no doubt
Part of the democratic process is excluding lazy people. If u can’t be bothered to register to vote then you don’t deserve a voice in the political process. It’s not hard to check if you’re registered.
Can we please just have an actual population register. It would solve so many problems.
Digital voting, mandatory voting, proportional representation, holiday for voting.
Comments are closed.