I hope you asked for a provisional ballot.
Call the League of Women Voters, too. They're great on this stuff.
how did you find out you weren't registered?
Don't tell me you registered to vote in the District of Columbia!
I went on the Board of Elections website to see when I could request an absentee ballot. As a lark, I decided to use their new online "check your registration" feature, because my company builds things like that and I like to check out the competition. Good thing I did while I still have time to straighten things out.
Also in some states you have to register as a member of a political party to vote in a primary, even if you already as an independent. I forgot that step when I turned 18, thereby missing my chance to vote against Jimmy Carter in 1980 and assuring the election of President Reagan. I'm still bummed about it.
Good thing your vote as a DC resident doesn't really count anyway.
6 - Or you could always be an idiot, like my brother.
I thought this meant you were trying to vote in Iowa. Vote early and often!
But, seriously Becks, you didn't give up that sweet Virginia representation, did you?
Glad I misunderstood. More people should preemptively check voting registration!
Re: the post in 8, the federal college loan program automatically registers you for the Selective Service, but not to vote. Pretty odd and sinister.
I'm pretty sure I'm registered since we had a local election not all that long ago.
Pretty odd and sinister.
Keep in mind Selective Service is federal, while each state has its own (wildly varying) criteria and process for voter registration. So this is partly a logistical issue.
you didn't give up that sweet Virginia representation, did you?
I proudly committed voter fraud by retaining my VA registration in 1990 in order to vote for the first black governor in the U.S. (Damn good thing I did, too, since the margin was next to nothing.)
But then I registered in D.C. because I care about local politics.
I gave up my swing-state voter status (MO: where abortion is literally the most important issue) when Cambridge was voting on ending rent control. So yeah, local politics.
So this is partly a logistical issue.
That assumes people are acting in good faith, which they're not. I can think of 3 or 4 eays ways to deal with the logistics off the top of my head. The opposition is exactly the same as for Motor Voter: Easy registration equals more Democratic votes.
17: Assuming anything is in good faith in politics is a mugs game, as far as I can see.
All this talk of selective service reminds me that even foreign dudes coming into the U.S. as permanent residents are supposed to register. We learned that when the UNforeignG applied for financial aid to go to college and had to beg forgiveness for failing to register when he entered the US. I forget what age it ends at. FYI for anyone who cares...
Twenty-six.
"Democrat! Canadian!" Thus we sing to the voter registration kids.
The argument for registering in the District is that the municipality misses your tax dollars (not that they don't care that you care). Virginia might be sufficiently blue that it's not the issue it was in 2006, but I felt less irritated that year with my friends who enjoyed D.C.'s many public services gratis.
I forget what age it ends at.
On one's 26th birthday.
I don't really disagree with 17, except to say that I do deal with the consequences of logistical problems all the time, and I don't discount their influence, even if we lived in a fantasy world where politics were conducted in completely good faith.
Example: Motor voter laws are great. Except that non-citizens can't vote. And there are 15-16 different immigration statuses, such that it IS legal to get a driver's license, but NOT legal to vote.
IME, the good folks at the DMV routinely get it wrong by helpfully asking green card holders if they want to register to vote, or even assuming they do (!). Presto -- the immigrant has now committed fraud. No malice intended or necessary.
Mandatory selective service registration pisses me off. I do not want PK signing up for that shit, man.
25: Get rich enough that he won't need or qualify for federal student loans. The folks I know who didn't register faced no consequences whatever for this reason.
Easy solution: automatically register all new babies born in the U.S.
I would have liked to keep my VA registration because my vote counts more there but I had legal reasons I needed to register in DC.
Also, they're doing a good job about scaring people when it comes to registration. My first thought was "Fine. I'll just re-register." but then I remembered hearing horror stories about 2004/2006 about people who didn't remember they were already registered registering again (or re-registering just to be sure) and getting slapped with fraud charges so I didn't. Instead, I'm going to do the surely fun process of trying to get them to straighten it out.
28 continued: otoh, it's a good reason to keep him in state for college, I guess. Or maybe he'll be a super genius or football player and get a free ride scholarship-wise or something.
Mandatory selective service registration pisses me off. I do not want PK signing up for that shit, man.
B: Objectively pro-fascist.
Josh, that's such 2007 thinking. FDR was a fascist. (Goldberg, 2008) B is a freedom fighter.
Mandatory selective service registration pisses me off
I'm not opposed in principle to the idea of a draft, so it doesn't really bug me. It's a bookkeeping arrangement; if it wasn't there, they'd use social security numbers if a draft was needed.
There would have to be some pretty extreme circumstances to justify a draft these days, though, so in practice we're on the same page.
||
You know what pisses me off? Spending 5 hours drafting an argument only to drop the mouse on the keyboard in manner that somehow manages to close the damned document without saving changes.
|>
Mandatory selective service registration is institutionalized discrimination.
If there's a draft, I want both boys and girls signing up for it. It bugs me that they basically hold kids college educations hostage to it; either *draft* people--i.e., *use* the social security system and make *everyone* subject to it, or else don't. Making people *sign up* for the thing is just fucking sadistic.
24: It's really scary, actually. Having it be unintentional isn't a defense, and since it counts as misrepresenting yourself as a U.S. citizen, were they to pursue it, the result is not just being stripped of your permanent residency, but losing the ability to reapply, re-enter the country, or apply for a waiver. No statute of limitations, nothing. Can retroactively fuck up your naturalization.
37: but they shouldn't have broken the laaaaawwwwwwww!
(I am entirely kidding. Actually 90% kidding and 10% wondering if you can make your fist come out of my computer screen to punch me in the face.)
IME, the good folks at the DMV routinely get it wrong by helpfully asking green card holders if they want to register to vote, or even assuming they do (!).
Hmm...Is this something I should worry about? The NY state DMV has definitely given my name as a potential juror...but I've sent something back indicating that as a non-citizen, I am not qualified to serve on a jury.
40: I wouldn't worry too much (IANAL, though). It sounds like you were alert to the issue and wouldn't have registered yourself, and would have stopped the DMV clerk if they offered. You can always triple-check with your county office if you are really concerned.
either *draft* people--i.e., *use* the social security system and make *everyone* subject to it, or else don't.
That only men are required to register is a legacy of the program not being used for decades, but I agree that if a draft is ever needed again, it shouldn't exclude women. Beyond that, I can't get worked up over the particulars of how an enormous database of names is compiled. For all I know, the hassle of coming up with an appropriate list from the social security rolls means that it makes more sense to have people sign up separately for selective service. But maybe there's a more efficient way.
I can't get worked up over the particulars of how an enormous database of names is compiled.
I'm worked up over my precious baby having to put himself on the potential soldier list when he turns 18. Freaks me right out.
But probably won't circumcise him. So that's something.
should have stayed in Canada, B. Try the coast next time though, I hear Ontario wasn't good for you.
Maybe he'll grow up gay and avoid the draft that way -- I mean, unless the military gets over that by then.
Thank god we have a volunteer military!
48: I was thinking that, but, although there are few things I am sure of, I really have very little doubt that by the time PK is 18 his long hair and painted nails will no longer get him out of serving.
50: True, but unless their is a major reversal in foreign policy next year or so, once they've finished working that one into the ground (3-5 more years, conservatively?) they'll have to get another somewhere.
51: Much safer to skip out by virtue of being rich --- that one always works.
52: The military got run into the ground in Vietnam, and the response was to get rid of the draft. I really don't see it being reintroduced.
Maybe I can get him high the night before he shows up for his physical.
54: They could only do that by leaving Vietnam and camping out for a while.
Like I said `without a major shift of foreign policy'. Of course I suppose such a shift could be precipitated by lack of capability.
for what it's worth water moccasin, I'm being a bit flip. I don't believe we'll see a draft soon (absent unlikely events). Current escapades aren't sustainable though, even without considering new arenas (Iran). Any more territorially aggressive wars will require a big infusion of troops ... which is basically the only reason I don't expect them to happen (or already have happened).
56: True enough. Of course, before they actually got out of Vietnam they introduced the college exemption to defuse the opposition of the educated classes, and PK would no doubt qualify for that.
Of course I suppose such a shift could be precipitated by lack of capability.
Exactly! Instituting a draft would be wildly unpopular and lead to a change in foreign policy anyway (which is the primary reason behind most of the recent talk of re-instituting it), so it would take some pretty impressive tactical political idiocy to let things get to that point without pulling a "Oceana has always been at peace with Eurasia" move first.
Hopefully yes, if there ever were a draft again PK would find some way to get out of it. But that's not the point. The point is that it just fucking sucks to realize that your kid is going to have to sign that list when they grow up. Fuck the militarized state, man.
I just nagged my brother and sister-in-law about registering to vote. (They moved about six months ago.) Thanks for the reminder.
For what it's worth - here's the link to the Calif Sec'y of State voting page, with helpful registration deadlines. If you want to vote in the presidential primary, your registration must be POSTMARKED no later than Jan 22. Since my mail is in what can only be described as a Mobius strip of mail forwarding between LA and SF and has, since the strike began, rarely made an appearance in SF, I've registered anew in SF.
before they actually got out of Vietnam they introduced the college exemption to defuse the opposition of the educated classes,
The opposite of the way I remember it. Gen. Hersey's deferment scheme, in place throughout the 50s and 60s, gave a college deferment, I think 2S was its designation. The change was to a lottery, in effect until the end of the draft.
And it has been argued that the removal of deferments contributed to ending the war.
Hey, you're now registered in two locations, and therefore are strong evidence of voter fraud. (According to idiots, of course.)
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Actually, the nice thing is that it asks where you were previously registered and so you get to change that - AND to refresh/reinvigorate/renew my desire to get permanent absentee ballots sent to me. I know - it's great standing there in a little booth, participating in the democratic process while members of the local Lion's Club or VFW Ladies' Auxiliary chat about their grandchildren in between verifying registration, but it's also nice filling out a ballot in a cafe or our living room, over a glass of wine.
Drunken voting. Now isn't that what this great country is all about?
I was in the UK on an election year, and filled my ballot out while consulting with my British flatmates about how to vote.
Drunken voting. Now isn't that what this great country is all about?
When I lived on the Kansas side of the metroplex, Johnson County had the spiffy pull-the-curtains-fully-enclosed voting booths, and I made it a habit to take along my pinch hitter and have a good toke before I exited the booth. The only problem was making it outdoors before my lungs gave out. Alas, in KCMO, we have to vote in front of everyone else. Not so good for people with shy ballot syndrome.
An unintended consequence of Motor-Voter (at least here in NC) is that changing the address on one's driver's license requires no signature but updating voter registration does. Thus, people register when getting a license and then when they move ten years later and update their license they get the mistaken impression that their voter registration was likewise updated and wind up having to vote a provisional ballot after becoming extremely frustrated with patient poll workers and a bunch of paperwork. I don't think this is reason to do away with being able to get registered when one gets one's license, I merely find it interesting to observe a system's accidental impacts. When I was a poll worker in the municipal election last year this was the reason for at least a couple of our overall handful of provisional ballots in the precinct I worked as a party judge.