Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
OK so here I don't "register to vote", because compulsory voting. Some other government department (the ATO?) dobs me in to the AEC.
Courtesy of the Wikipedia link you posted, I just learned California and West Virginia just joined Oregon in making voter registration automatic for anyone taking out a state driver license (US usage) / driving licence (UK usage) or state ID card -- which, by the way, many poor citizens lack[0], with implications for 'voter ID laws'[1] lately adopted in right-wing states fearing the ongoing demographic shift slowly taking power away from old white guys with money. Obviously, this is way overdue. Automatic voter registration is self-evidently a good idea, which is why conservatives oppose it. ;-> To be more accurate, they fear with some justification that expanding the franchise to its proper full extent would merely increase the pool of liberal Democratic Party voters. This is also why conservative factions, backed by a shrinking older and overwhelmingly white demographic, have been adopting increasingly transparent voter disenfranchisement measures, such as 'voter ID laws', closing of most polling stations in districts hostile to them, etc., in order to hold onto power at any cost (including legitimacy). This in turn makes the pre-existing partisan divide even more bitter and the eventual future reckoning probably more savage. The late Justice Antonin Scalia was key to this naked power grab: He was the key fifth vote in a US Supreme Court decision[2] last year invalidating Section 4(b) of the 1965 Voter Rights Act requiring certain (mostly southern) states with a history of wrongful voter disenfranchisement to get 'preclearance' from the Federal Justice Department before changing their voting laws. _Immediately_ after this 5-4 decision -- where the majority claimed this supervision was (in effect) outdated and no longer needed -- six states primarily targeted by Section 4(b) passed various 'voter ID' and gerrymandering measures blatantly aimed at disenfranchising Hispanic and black voters. This is part of why Scalia's death and House of Representatives Republicans' refusal to even consider Obama appointees to that seat: They aren't even trying any longer to conceal their measures to retain power by tipping the scales. They have no Plan B except to double down and cheat harder. (There is actually no such thing as a national ID card in the USA, though a passport would technically qualify but is possessed by few. State driver licences form a de-facto national ID card that happens to be issued in slightly different flavours by 51 independent jurisdications.) [0] Or there are minor discrepancies between a name on the driver license and the same name as known to the registrar of voters, etc. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_ID_laws_in_the_United_States [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_County_v._Holder