I registered to vote at the orientation for my freshman year at the University of Arizona. My parents re-registered to vote around the same time because we were all becoming Arizona residents. I didn’t think much about it after that until I realized that my parents and all of my newly-registered friends had their voter registration cards, and I didn’t.
So I went down to the Voter Registration office today and asked why I haven’t gotten my card. I was told that I wasn’t registered. I told them that I registered at orientation, at which point I was informed that apparently the group that registered me didn’t turn in all their registrations. 95% of the student registration drive groups are good about turning in their registration forms, and apparently mine wasn’t. So now I can’t vote until the next election unless I can produce the receipt copy of my registration, which I never received. (I did register today at the office so I would at least be able to vote then!) I have been officially stripped of my power to be heard as an 18-year-old citizen of the United States, and I am pissed.
I have the feeling yours may well be an all-too-common story for this years’ election. The Missouri Secretary of State, who is running for Governor, warned last week that groups conducting voter registration drives are not required by law to turn in said registrations.
From the statistics I’ve heard, enough young people are registering that hopefully we can consider this year’s losses marginal and finally see some representation in government.
You know, with all of the problems we’ve now discovered exist with organizations of all stripes doing these voter registration drives, I’m left with one really huge question:
Why in the name of all that’s good and holy in the universe would anyone with two brain cells to rub together entrust anyone else with their voter registration when they could take the exact same form and mail it or personally take it to the registrar’s office themselves?
I’m not really terribly inclined to give a lot of sympathy for anyone who didn’t have the sense to eliminate whatever middle man needless inserted themselves into the situation, by most reports in hopes of saving themselves 37 cents on stamp or otherwise “simplifying” a process which is already about as simple as anything can be – fill out form, stick on stamp, put in mailbox. Not that damned difficult.
If you want something done, do it yourself. If you want something really important that’s date sensitive and has long-lasting ramifications done, most certainly do it yourself – or suck it up and deal when it gets screwed up to your own detriment.
Point taken. Although I don’t see a conflict between sucking up and dealing, and pitting an organization which clearly did not do the job it set out to do, and for which I relied on them. You’re right; I shouldn’t have relied on them. But it seemed like a good idea because when I take papers home they tend to get stuck in piles rather than addressed (an issue I’m working on), and I thought it would be better for me to complete my registration right then and there while I was thinking about it, since that was a viable option. Turned out I was wrong. Doesn’t make the registration group any less Pitworthy for screwing up, IMO. (Although I suppose I may have been a little harsh in implying that they alone stripped me of my right to vote.)
I still don’t understand the purpose of these registration laws. In Minnesota you can pre-register, but if you don’t get around to doing that you just show up at the polls on election day with proof of residency (drivers license, utility bills, student ID, that sort of thing) and vote. What purpose is served by pre-registering?
Wowee. In Cali, we have a 15 day before the election deadline to register…it isn’t even a matter of purpose served, it’s the only way. So our deadline is Oct. 18. On top of that, the little old ladies that work the voting sites ARE NOT allowed to ask for or even see identification. Which is bizarre to me. You could say you were ANYBODY.
Although, the very concept of “stealing” the vote is equally as bizarre.
When I first moved to Mississippi about five years ago, I picked up a mail-in registration form somewhere. To register by mail, I had to have two other registered Mississippi voters sign the form. I didn’t know too many people here, and the ones I asked weren’t registered. I finally did get registered when I got my driver’s license. So there is a reason why some people don’t register by mail. (I don’t know if the 2-signature requirement is still in effect.)
Provisional voting is allowed in some areas in California, but this year, each provisional voter will have to go through additional steps to prove who they are and then as the results are being read, the provisional voters ballots will be scrutinized further.
I’ve seen cold and I’ve lived through cold before; I lived in DC for 10 years, and have visited Minnesota all times of the year throughout my life as I have a lot of family there. True, it’ll take a little bit of adjusting after living in San Diego and then Tucson, but I can do it.
< cynic > Do you have the money it takes to be heard anyway? Turning 18 doesn’t give you much of a voice in government…contributing a large sum of money does much more, IMO. < /cynic >