Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)

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ELI5 why do people in USA need to register to vote? (programming.dev)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'd expect the state to have a list of all its citizens and their basic personal info (age) which could be used to determine their eligibility for voting. In my country, we get a "invitation" to the vote, with your voter station and info on how to change it.

Instead, I'm seeing posts about USA's "voter rolls", which are sometimes purged, which prevents people from voting. Isn't this an attack on the voting system and democracy itself?

So why doesn't USA have a list of voters? Are they stupid?

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

It sounds like you are from a country that requires you to have an ID. So effectively, you are required to register to vote by getting an ID. In the US, you are not required to have an ID, so the government has no way of knowing your home address by default.