# Since the US voting system is so broken... what does everybody else use? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 29, 2022, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610 "2022-01-29T03:20:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/61 "2022-01-30T03:20:16Z")
Another point of difference US vs Australia is you don’t have to register to vote before elections, then separately vote. Once you are on the electoral roll - typically at 18 but some delay or don’t bother - you are on it for life. You are obligated to tell the electoral commision when you move (within 3 months IIRC) but that’s the extent of it. And you don’t register for a given party, you are just put on the independently-maintained roll - you decide at polling time who gets your preferences. Which brings up preferential voting. First past the post is not bad when there are literally only two candidates, but in multi-candidate constituencies it leads to ridiculous outcomes (eg Gore vs Bush vs Nader). Much worse in the UK from what I understand, when there can be any number of candidates - theoretically you’d be elected if you got 10% of the vote and 10 other candidates got 9% each. We also do not elect officials such as judges, DAs, sheriffs, dog catchers etc - those are all appointed positions. Only members of the legislature at the three levels of government are elected (federal, state, county/shire). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/62 "2022-01-30T03:33:19Z")
The New York Times ran an [article](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/world/asia/india-election-results.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iava3DJDm8ZiPsSGYyMvE7WZKMkZt0_3j3eSdtMO6MuQ_o31OJEIkhxUE-ovp6A0twjEhkClLiSDCkwzo6fGvcx6yPrZW20b-simOO1tBzcdTO8CqLA1SIjLRJu8pVnaV7-2n0IxqrDGrMh3MJsnqt0XuAMTj8KYSCNu-C5SEktfYXbMWyPr1U-SOpbWjrMnNaD6btmcQ9aCl_OTX8X8n9roZoHe4tRZPCjWkZmLMnugrwRCXhqLpOrB_AzRYvUkrZotd3duDLJzYGSlI800Bj9gL86t6s&smid=url-share) (gift link that should be accessible by everyone) in April 2019 about the federal elections in India and the lengths the government went to in order to ensure the maximum number of the eligible were able to vote, and that includes _900 million people_. The article describes how a team of five election workers hiked miles to ensure than a man who lives by himself in a temple miles into a forest was able to vote. If India can take pride in ensuring that everyone eligible is able to vote, why can’t we? Instead some people seem to make it as difficult as possible for some people to vote. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/63 "2022-01-30T03:39:40Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > On Fox News and elsewhere in the Right-o-sphere, “people are talking about it” is simply coded language for "We just made up some bullshit, talked about it, and are now claiming that “people are talking about it”. See! We’re not lying! Well, they technically aren’t wrong. They _are_ people, in a loosely defined sense of the word, and they _are_ talking about it. That they were the _only_ people talking about it before broadcast and they pulled the information out of their collective ass is overlooked, but they are talking nevertheless. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/64 "2022-01-30T03:42:05Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > So far less than 500 instances that might have been voter fraud in 2020, and less than two dozen where sufficient evidence was found to get the legal system involved. This is true in the terms you mean. Voting is honest, especially considering the large number of elected offices (judges, prosecutors, registers of wills, committee people , etc). But looking at it another way, too many offices up for election was one cause of the infamously confusing year 2000 Florida butterfly ballot which led to a wrong result., Also, I would add to the less than two dozen you mention the people being prosecuted for invading the Capitol during the electoral vote count last year. Our voting system isn’t broke, and neither is the initial count, but I think the final side of the counting is very close to broke… At least in my state, final decisions on recounts are the responsibility of judges chosen in partisan elections. And our [ambiguous Electoral Count Act](https://issueone.org/solutions/averting-an-electoral-count-constitutional-crisis/) is going to be a disaster one day if not changed. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/65 "2022-01-30T06:40:22Z")
We don’t often get recounts in the UK, or at least, not enough to have a significant effect on the overall national result. AFAIK, if there are disputed ballot papers, those are collected together, and the Returning Officer (the senior professional civil servant in charge of the whole process) will look at them with the candidates’ agents with the aim of achieving consensus. Similarly, if the results are very close and one side or the other asks for a recount, it won’t be objected to, at least initially. Years ago, there was a General Election where the overall national result was very close, a bare single-figure majority in the Commons, and the last constituency to report was recounting, coming up with single-figure majorities for one side, then the other. As I recall, they recounted six times before they got the same result twice in a row and both sides accepted it. In the end, exhaustion wins, I suppose: which is also the reason why we don’t get the massive frauds (impersonation, double voting) that the system is theoretically wide open to - it’s just too much trouble to do it in any way that has a real effect. But public confidence in the results depends on the simplicity of the pencil-and-paper audit trail. There have been experiments with electronic voting here, but the apparent opacity of what goes on in the machinery does make it more susceptible to doubt and suspicion. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/66 "2022-01-30T07:15:59Z")
The rule in Australia is that close counts [less than 100 votes from memory] trigger an automatic recounting on the night. Otherwise candidates can request a recount, citing specific issues they think that might influence the count. It is worth noting that while in some countries this sort of never-say-die attitude is admirable, it is not liked by the Australian electorate, who see sore losing as a crime roughly level with granny robbing, and trying it on can be quite damaging to their reputation. If that is not satisfactory there is a nuclear mechanism for a court appeal, which goes to the Court of Disputed Returns [thunderclap!]. This is a normal superior court but sitting to exclusively hear issues about the legitimacy of the ballot under the Electoral Act. There has had to be the occasional by-election in seats because the court ruled that the result was unreliable. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/67 "2022-01-30T08:37:01Z")
Some facts about the Israeli voting system: 1. All elections in the country, both national and municipal, are run by the Central Elections Committee, a bipartisan body headed by a Supreme Court justice. They organize the elections and they count the votes. They’re traditionally very professional and apolitical. 2. Voting is simple: you take one note, you put it in an envelope, you put the envelope a box. The votes are counted by hand in the presence of representatives of the various political parties. 3. There’s no need to register to vote; the government already has your address on the Population Registry (if you bothered to update it - otherwise, it has your previous address, or your parents’ address if you’re really lazy). Just check online and see where you’re supposed to go vote. 4. All municipal elections in the country take place on the same day. It’s just like a general election, except you vote for your municipal council (and mayor, if your town has one). 5. Election day, whether national or municipal, is a national holiday. It kind of has to be - the polling places are usually in public schools, which means that you have to shut the schools down, and if you shut down the schools, you have to give the parents a day off, right? Although post-Covid, that’s not as obvious as it should be, I guess. 6. There are no absentee voting, except for stuff like diplomatic staff and merchant marines. However, the government has an obligation to given everyone the opportunity to vote, and the Elections Commission takes this seriously. That means, for instance, that if you can’t get to a polling station independently, the government will reimburse your cab fare. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/68 "2022-01-30T09:34:56Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > You just need to take that card and some sort of government i.d. with you, go to the polling place, and give your name to the polling clerks. They’ll check that you’re on the list, and if you are, give you your ballot and you go mark it. They cross your name off the "Big Book o’Voters’’, drawing a heavy line through it. So any ID will allow a person to register, but a government ID is required to actually vote? ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/69 "2022-01-30T11:20:58Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Do you really think changing/improving the voting system across all states isn’t nearly Impossible? Reflect on all the ungodly big things you Americans have done in the last century and now counting bits of paper is beyond the collective you? You’ve had umpteen practical, proven enhancements, improvements and reforms posted within your own thread and all you can do is cast shadows with the inane and hoary “American problems need American solutions” meme? > [@](#): > > Please demonstrate how you would get it done in this political environment, About 1/4 the eligible populace cast their vote for the GOP. And even if the problem was that big, it’s barely an insurmountable task. ---
**Author:** ![keeganst94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@keeganst94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeganst94)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/70 "2022-01-30T11:52:59Z")
No, a government ID isn’t required, although it is preferred. There’s a rather long list of acceptable ID. You can show 1 piece of ID if it’s a government ID that includes a photo, your birthdate, and your address OR any two pieces of ID on this list: band membership card birth certificate Canadian citizenship card or certificate Canadian Forces identity card Canadian passport card issued by an Inuit local authority firearms licence government cheque or cheque stub government statement of benefits health card income tax assessment Indian status card or temporary confirmation of registration library card licence or card issued for fishing, trapping or hunting liquor identity card Métis card old age security card parolee card property tax assessment or evaluation public transportation card social insurance number card vehicle ownership Veterans Affairs health care identification card Targeted revision form to residents of long-term care institutions voter information card correspondence issued by a school, college or university student identity card blood donor card CNIB card hospital card label on a prescription container identity bracelet issued by a hospital or long-term care institution medical clinic card bank statement credit card credit card statement credit union statement debit card insurance certificate, policy or statement mortgage contract or statement pension plan statement personal cheque employee card residential lease or sub-lease utility bill (e.g.: electricity; water; telecommunications services including telephone, cable or satellite) letter from a public curator, public guardian or public trustee letter of confirmation of residence from a First Nations band or reserve or an Inuit local authority letter of confirmation of residence, letter of stay, admission form, or statement of benefits from one of the following designated establishments: student residence seniors’ residence long-term care institution shelter soup kitchen a community-based residential facility And if you somehow don’t have any two of those, you can still vote if you submit your name and address in writing, and have someone who votes at your polling station who does have ID vouch for you. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/71 "2022-01-30T12:40:37Z")
Yeah dead people voting is not among the main problems with US elections. Elections being held on a normal working day, without the option of an absentee ballot in many counties disenfranchises many working class voters. Then the whole thing of inadequate polling places (surprise, surprise, in inner cities) such that some people are queuing for 6,7, 8 hours…it’s a mockery of democracy (hey! that’s a half rhyme). And this is before we’re getting to all the deliberate attempts to subvert democracy on a wide scale, legal and illegal. Such as gerrymandering (which always afflicts “first past the post” but some countries take active measures like drawing voting districts by objective means or independently), the newly restrictive ID laws, intimidating people by locking people up for 5 years that made an honest mistake and on and on. However, it’s good that the OP asks the question, as the problem often is that Americans are fed this line of “We’re number one!” so the idea of copying what other countries are doing seems sacrilege. Accepting that, yeah, turns out the US actually isn’t currently the haven of democracy that you may have been taught is an important step. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/72 "2022-01-30T15:10:41Z")
I’d like to note once again that one of the great characteristics of this particular board is the perspective we routinely get from those who don’t live in the US. It’s very much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/73 "2022-01-30T15:40:11Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Yeah dead people voting is not among the main problems with US elections. Brain-dead people _opposing_ the right to vote, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/74 "2022-01-30T15:57:28Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > So any ID will allow a person to register, but a government ID is required to actually vote? Sorry, no, I was speaking too quickly. The simplest way to vote is to show your driver’s licence, which is what I always use. But as @keeganst94 has said, there is a long, long list of alternative id that can be used. The goal is to match you to your name on the voter roll, but not to put too much of a barrier to voting. Even a prescription container works, or your power bill, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/75 "2022-01-30T17:07:06Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > I’ve heard lots of people say that the US voting system is broken and that it’s far too easy to vote twice or for dead people to vote. So, how it’s not just “people are saying”……which is usually code for “something Donald Trump made up”, it’s “I’ve heard lots of people say”, which is, I guess, code for something Donald Trump, Michael Flynn and Rudy Guiliani made up. I’ve seen some people quoting reputable sources that identified mail-in voting as a vulnerability, but those sources are old, the quote I usually see was from 2005. Document management and tracking technologies are way better now, and as these technologies continue to improve, so does voting security. The idea that it’s easy to vote twice is total bullshit. Every registered voter gets one ballot, with a bar code and an ID number. You can even track your ballot if you like. Your vote is private in that no one knows how you voted, but the fact that you got a ballot and voted is public record. The process is carefully audited. Some people have been caught voting twice, but all those people were in situation where the could co-opt the ballot of another registered voter, usually a mentally incompetent or recently deceased family member. But most people can’t do this even if they wanted to……because most people don’t have an incapacitated or recently deceased family member whose ballot they can steal. A handful of people, maybe a dozen or so out of the over 150 MILLION that voted, cheated by voting the ballots of their recently deceased family members. Other cases of “dead people voting” involved clerical errors around households with a recently deceased family member, where the ballot was recorded as being from the deceased instead of the living person with the same name at the same address. ( and, as a side note……many people cast early or mail-in votes then die before Election Day. This is not nefarious at all, and in most jurisdictions those votes count.) There are also a few cases of people that voted twice in different states, and many people are registered in different states, I think this is one area where there is room for improvement, and I’d like to see more coordination between states. The other factor is that voting twice is a serious felony, and one that provides very little benefit, unless you were goaded by a psychotic world leader. The bottom line is that all this bullshit about widespread voter fraud is nothing but noise. There’s no narrative, no theory of the case, no evidence of conspiracy, no suspects, no answers to Who? Where? How? It’s all just a constant scream of thought-limiting cliches……”Dead People Voting!” “Ballots from China!” “Ballot Harvesting,” and random misleading evidence ( for example, if you hear an election fraud troll screaming about 100 people voting from the same address with the same person witnessing all the ballots - that address is usually a nursing home, nursing home residents get to vote, and a staff member usually witnesses all the ballots.). The US voting system is not broken. You need to more discernment and critical thinking skills. “People are saying” is not a reputable source. A credible accusation of a crime requires a narrative, a timeline, a theory of exactly what happened and evidence that a crime was actually committed. You have none of that. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/76 "2022-01-30T17:55:16Z")
I think it would be easy to vote twice if, for example, you move from one state to another, but remain within easy driving distance of the first. And there are periodic stories of people sending in a newly deceased family member’s absentee ballot. But just because it’s possible for an individual to vote fraudulently, doesn’t mean it’s possible for an individual to do it on a sustained basis, or for a group to do so in a way to sway an election, and the penalties for doing so are justifiably harsh. But that’s one issue where having a centralized electoral roll would help, instead of the patchwork of dozens (by state) / thousands (by county) in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/77 "2022-01-30T17:57:32Z")
The main problem with the U.S. system is not the structure of _voting_ (although the Senate and the Electoral College are unjustifiably anti-democratic, as are most state legislatures). The main problem is that one party has decided that it is justified in suppressing the other side’s votes in order to hold on to power. It’s a cultural and social problem, primarily, not a structure problem. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/78 "2022-01-30T18:29:52Z")
The one thing that troubles me about mail-in ballots is the possibility that an abusive spouse will decide that who their partner is voting for, without giving them any choice in the matter. I don’t know whether this happens, but I do know that domestic abuse is woefully under-reported, so if it does happen, we wouldn’t hear about it. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/79 "2022-01-30T21:22:34Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > This is already a thing. Well, not “getting a neighbor’s permission,” but having another registered voter in your precinct vouch for you is a way to comply with Voter ID laws. It’s not remotely official: but my current signature is only distantly related to the one I signed the voting book with over 30 years ago. I’ve said it jokingly, but in this small town it’s true: “I’ve got two kinds of ID: she knows me and she knows me.” “She” and “she” being a couple of the (usually older women, here) pollworkers. Whether my signature would do the job if I lived and therefore voted in a large city, I have no idea. But I’m in effect vouched for by the pollworkers. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > in California at least, elections are run at the county level. If that’s true for the US as a whole (I’m not sure) True in NY, anyway. It does make some types of fraud harder to carry out, as it would be necessary to interfere in a whole lot of different places without getting caught at it in any of them. > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I gather that even within one county, there can be different issues on the ballot, depending where you live, so there isn’t even uniformity of the ballot within one county? Correct, as others have said. There may be Town offices and/or propositions on the ballot, and there are a number of towns (and/or cities) in each county. – Part of the difficulty of having the elections and districting controlled by non-partisan bodies is that, if there’s already a nastily partisan atmosphere, the theoretically ‘non-partisan’ bodies are likely to be partisan in effect. However the members are selected, after all, they’re going to be humans, and will have political opinions – as will those who select them. There are people who don’t much care which side wins; but they’re not likely to wind up on election commissions, because they’re almost entirely people who don’t want anything to do with the process. New York State got sick of partisan districting, and set up a supposedly nonpartisan, or at least bipartisan, body to do the job for this year. That body split right smack down the middle, and presented the legislature with two sets of maps: one approved by the Democratic members of the “non-partisan” body, and the other approved by the Republican members. So far the legislature has bounced them both back and told them to try again, but if agreement remains unobtainable, the districts will be drawn by the (definitely partisan) legislature after all. > [@dolphinboy](#): > > My follow-on question is why weren’t these issues addressed many years ago when some kind of compromise might have been possible? Making voting easier should always have been encouraged. These are not new issues for the US. Partly because no, they’re not new issues for the US. Partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression have been with us all along – and the people in charge of them have also, all along, often been in charge of the election process. Partly because, when things go seem to be going relatively smoothly and both parties agree that eligible voters should be able to vote and districts ought to be reasonably fairly drawn – a situation which does occasionally occur, at least in some areas though not always in the same ones – it then doesn’t seem urgent to do anything to change the process, because under those conditions the process appears to be working pretty well. In other words, it might be possible to fix it when we don’t need to fix it. But whenever it’s obvious that we need to fix it, then we can’t fix it, because of the reasons that are making it obvious. > [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Making voting easier has been a partisan issue since the Republicans threw in with the racists [thanks to Nixon in 1972.] It’s been an issue since long before that. Look up the history of literacy tests in the USA, sometime. (Racism is all too often why we can’t have what might otherwise be nice things.) > [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > And this is why Canada has a much simpler electoral system. Elections are never combined They’re combined here partly in an attempt to get people to show up; and partly so people don’t have to keep voting half a dozen or more times every year. They’re not all combined – school districts are entirely separate, and those votes are at a different time of year (at least, in New York State.) I think we may have more levels of government to vote for than most places? > [@Askance](#): > > you don’t register for a given party, you are just put on the independently-maintained roll - you decide at polling time who gets your preferences. We also decide at polling time who gets our actual vote. Being registered in a party doesn’t mean that one has to vote for that party’s candidates. – Agreeing with the long list of people saying that the problem isn’t voter fraud at the individual level or small-group level, as in people handing in other people’s ballots, dead people voting, ineligible people voting, and so on. That can happen, but it’s rare; there’s no evidence of more than isolated cases – and, when it does happen, it’s done by people of varying political opinions, so some such votes cancel each other out. (Most of the handful of proven cases that came out of 2020 were IIRC by Republicans.) The actual problem is at two levels, and is worse in some states than others (though historically they haven’t always been the same states): one, that people are selectively prevented from voting by making it harder for them to vote and/or are selectively prevented from having their votes matter by gerrymandering of districts. And two, that there’s currently a movement to have legislatures enabled to refuse to accept the results of votes. That second one is AIUI new, or at least new in modern times (originally, legislatures in many states elected US Senators directly, no need to interfere; average people didn’t get a vote in the first place.) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610/80 "2022-01-30T21:36:06Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > There are people who don’t much care which side wins; but they’re not likely to wind up on election commissions, because they’re almost entirely people who don’t want anything to do with the process. This is a big difference, then. The non-partisan people who I’ve encountered who are on the election process are deeply interested in it, and deeply committed to making it work for everyone. The concept of “non-partisan” is accepted and implemented in Canada; not everyone has a partisan interest, that overrides concepts like drawing a fair map or making sure everyone has the same ability to vote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-the-us-voting-system-is-so-broken-what-does-everybody-else-use/958610.md?page=5)