Talk:Voter registration
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007) |
Contents |
[edit] US
Can someone add a US section to this? I understand people have to register as either Republican or Democrat before they can vote? That sounds a bit Orwellian so maybe I have the wrong end of the stick? nick 12:58, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
- I second that. 80.134.112.46 11:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
- My understanding is that you can optionally state a party to support on your registration, and you will be entitled to vote in that party's primary elections, etc. I've no idea whether the information is made public, but it appears to be used in an equivalent manner to when parties over here need to ballot their members. 81.104.165.184 02:54, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
- 28 states and DC require you to declare a party affiliation, though you can declare "Independent" i.e. no affiliation. Party affiliation in those states permits "closed primaries" in which only those declared for a party can vote in that party's primary. In other states, "open primaries" are used instead, in which you only declare which party's primary you are voting in, at the time of voting. See open primary, closed primary, blanket primary, California Democratic Party v. Jones, and this list indicating which states do and do not require official party affiliation. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ (AMA) 18:18, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
- This is also relevant -- in MD, and therefore probably elsewhere there is party affiliation, registering as "independent" means you don't get to vote in the primary at all, as you have no party to select candidates for. You can only vote in the general election. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ (AMA) 18:20, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
- My understanding is that you can optionally state a party to support on your registration, and you will be entitled to vote in that party's primary elections, etc. I've no idea whether the information is made public, but it appears to be used in an equivalent manner to when parties over here need to ballot their members. 81.104.165.184 02:54, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
Why does the registration section link to the League of Women Voters website, isn't that advertising?Nnnudibranch (talk) 05:00, 7 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Voter Registration
The statement "Laws requiring individual voters to register, as opposed to having the government register people automatically, have a strong correlation with lower numbers of people turning out to vote" is at odds with the Australian experience with individual voter registration but also a long record of very high voter turnout (see rest of article). Some revision needed here - perhaps it's a bit POV. PAS 23:30, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
- Australia doesn't fit that statement because voting is compulsory - I've amended the statement to refer only to where voting is voluntary. I agree it still sounds a touch POV though. Brynus 11:52, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] UK
Can anyone confirm or deny the statement "The current system of registration, introduced by the Labour government?" User:Morph UK deleted the phrase with no explanation. --Electiontechnology 17:17, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
- It is subject to definition of "the current system". The current system of rolling registration, which is not so dependent on the annual canvas, was introduced by the Labour government in the Representation of the People Act 2000 - specifically an amendment to the Representation of the People Act 1983. So you could say the current system was introduced in 1983 but the current system of rolling registration was introduced in 2000. The edit was misinformed. -- zzuuzz (talk) 18:38, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Too US-centric
I've just alphabetized the individual countries and provided a short intro to the list of them. I think the first half of the article is too US-centric, and much of the info there should be moved down to the US-section. --Hordaland (talk) 01:17, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
