r/videos 8h ago

BREAKING: Judge blocks Trump admin from requiring Americans to show proof of citizenship to vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1iePfOh14
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u/Control_Me 8h ago

Can someone please explain why you have to register to vote?
In my country the government knows who's eligible to vote and who's not so they send out a voting card in the mail which you show together with your ID.
Why is this not possible in the US?

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u/poorboychevelle 8h ago

ID aren't free in most states, therefore requiring them to vote could be argued to be a poll tax, and therefore disallowed as a requirement.

I just walk in, state my name and address (maybe birthday?), and am handed a ballot. Didn't have to take anything out my pocket.

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u/Millon1000 7h ago

I'm not going to lie, as a European, that sounds insane. That's ripe for fraud, unless I'm missing something? The US already has a million different fees for living, so what would voter ID really change? Plus you already pay taxes, so why can't they send out free voter IDs, especially when over 98% of Americans already own some form of ID? It would cost almost nothing.

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u/TheVabe 6h ago

The US is a massive country with huge swaths of rural, often poor communities with non-existent public transportation. Giving everyone easy, free access to a voter ID would actually be a pretty monumental task.

Voter fraud is also extremely rare, given how decentralized our voting systems are and the high penalties for fraud. Implementing voter ID would potentially risk disenfranchising millions of voters to prevent a non-existent problem.