Why is voter registration necessary in the US voting system?

Question

In Europe I lived in different countries and I was always able to vote (national and local elections in my home country, and local elections elsewhere) without having to do anything beforehand: the day of the election I present myself to the polling place, I show my ID and whatever document I might have received by snail-mail in the previous days, the personnel at the polling place checks that I am in the voting list for that place, and I am able to proceed.

The only exception is when I vote in a different place from where I generally live, and in these occasions I have to warn the town hall/government a few days in advance.

What makes this inapplicable in the US? What is the registration needed for?

Answer 1

In European countries it is usually mandatory to register your place of residence with the local municipality. Births and deaths also need to be reported. That means that the local municipalities have a complete list of their residents with enough information about them to know who is eligible for voting. So they can just send every person with suffrage their voting papers prior to the election.

Not so in the United States.

There is no duty to register your place of residence. That means if you want to be eligible for voting, you need to register voluntarily.

Answer 2

I will add to Phillipp's comment. Registration in the US is basically on the honor system. Sometimes you need ID, sometimes you don't. You can register online in many locales. Sometimes you just need a utility bill. Obviously this in no way confirms identity or voter eligibility.

What happens next is that the name is checked against federal databases, like our Social Security System to see if you exist (most Americans are in that system but it is not required), the FBIs for criminality (some ex-felons are not allowed to vote), etc. etc. There's even a database for dead people, the Social Security Death Index, that's notoriously shoddy. In Minnesota, 8 databases are used to determine voter eligibility and identity.

An issue does arise with same-day voter registration in Minnesota, meaning you register and vote in a federal election the same day. None of the checks occur prior to voting. Statute allows 42 days for registration processing. Requiring provisional balloting in these instances for such votes is a partial step in reducing voter fraud. Provisional ballots come under heightened scrutiny if the vote totals are within the range requiring mandatory recounts, usually just a few percentage points. But historically, 15-20% of the total voters avail themselves of same day voter registration. Other states have this practice too.

So the purpose of voter registration with massive loopholes like Minnesota's? Seems to me to give a patina of respectability over a very flawed system.

Answer 3

Article One, Section 4, Clause 1 of the US Constitution:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

Congress has enacted laws to ensure some level of regularity in federal elections ("Motor Voter" registration, elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, campaign finance restrictions, etc.), but most decisions are left up to individual states for both political reasons and as an expression of federalism.

This is why each state has different laws regarding registration deadlines, photo ID requirements, and even which parties you can register under. It's not a lack of technical ability or citizenship data (most men 18–25 are automatically registered for selective service, for instance, largely by automatically registering eligible men when they renew drivers' licenses and other important documents). There's a strong political interest in voter turnout, and political parties use as much space as Congress allows to ensure they retain an advantage in elections. A couple of the (many) examples you can find:

1. Colorado automatically mails a ballot to all of their registered voters in part because people who are less likely to vote in person are more likely to vote for Democrats.
2. Texas' voter ID law disallows some forms of ID (such as student IDs) that are more likely to be held by young people, but loosens rules surrounding IDs of elderly voters who are more likely to support Republicans.

Edit: My point is that automatically registering voters requires federal assistance, but states largely have the right to make their own rules (unless they're so one-sided that they're unconstitutional). Political parties on the state and national levels prefer to limit the federal government's involvement because it would restrict their ability to influence elections.

Answer 4

the day of the election ... and I am able to proceed.

It could have been made more clear to your readers if you had indicated that "the election" you were talking about were local elections - presumably means that it is not about the election of national leaders.

I think in most US locales local residence is all that's required for that as well.

The national IDs being discussed are in the context of a federal election - the presidential election of 2016 for example. It would be interesting to hear your experience, as an Italian citizen, to vote for the presidents of the Netherlands or Germany.

In the US, a lack of uniform national ID, and some states' laws prohibiting ID checks and others states issuing state IDs (without citizenship proof) have made voter fraud possible, and likely. the latest example came out of a political science researcher Old Dominion suggested that Hillary may have received as many as 800K votes from illegal aliens -> as many as 6%+ of non-citizens voted in the last presidential election.

and if you go through his earlier papers on non-citizen voting, you will find a large body of literature / researches in this area and it is fairly conclusive that non-citizens do vote in national elections consistently.

I think so far the trump administration has not provided much basis to say that this is a widespread problem. on the other hand, his political opponents, including the media, are equally baseless to call trump's claim "false" - as they don't have any facts to dispute his claim either.

With that, it makes sense to get to the bottoms of it, and see just how big / small a problem illegal votes (including non-citizen votes) are.