Same day voter registration. Its good enough for Iraq…

Elana Levin

Same day voter registration. Its good enough for Iraq…

As Iraqis living in America head to the voting booths this week to vote absentee in their elections they will be experiencing something most of us here in America cannot relate to.

Same day voter registration!

That's right.

In order to encourage voter turnout among Iraqi ex-pats they are being allowed to vote in advance of the official election date AND register and vote on the same day. During earlier elections for who would write their Constitution, Iraqis could register to vote up to a week before the election. But that didn't encourage enough turn-out seeing as many Iraqis in America had to travel very long distances to register to vote and then travel again to actually vote.

So what did the government do to encourage greater participation?
Same thing us democracy proponents in America have been encouraging since forever-- same day voter registration!

Once again, America lags behind in setting an example for fledgling democracies the world over.

Of course those leftists back in Iraq are also entitled to universal healthcare (not worth much if you're gonna get attacked en-route to the pediatrician but you get the idea).

Do you hear the proponents of the Iraq war calling for either of these pro-democracy practices to happen in their own country, the good ole' USA? Don't make me cry.

But hey, if its good enough for Iraq how come its too good for us in the states?

Elana Levin: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 6:04 AM, Dec 15, 2005 in Democracy | Progressive Agenda
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Comments

Historically, same day voter registration has been badly abused in this country (and Tammany Hall, in particular), and so they have always been reluctant to reinstitute it. Much though I would like to see electoral reform for the US, I do think that there are several details to iron out before we get to this one, lest we have rampant voting abuse. Even if it’s not being reported in the media (and probably won't be for the next few years) that is almost certainly happening in Iraq.

There is little doubt but that a more modern form of same-day registration could be implemented with a lesser degree of abuse in this country, at least for those who carry identification. We can make no such guarantees for those who do not. And its those without identification that I presume we hope to benefit with such a scheme.

Actually, one reform I would want to implement even before such a plan would be a mandated universal state-wide registration system that could both verify that a person is registered and verify if they have voted, so we don't have people pushed out of polling stations because they're at the wrong one.