Thread by @ElectProject

National Voter Registration Day is upon us, and so it is time for my annual screed against voter registration

First, we don't need voter registration. North Dakota doesn't have it, you just need id to vote. This is how most developed democracies manage their voter rolls, with the important exception their governments give national id cards to everyone without additional costs

This is why I support a national voter identification card, that the government provides everyone at no cost. usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

Voter registration creates more problems than it solves. It creates mazes that burden voters and trap people who aren't eligible to unintentionally register. Unscrupulous third-party organizations or their workers can defraud campaigns and cause headaches

Why do we have voter registration? It has long been a disenfranchising tool. The first laws were adopted in the mid-1800s to combat -- you guess it -- voter fraud in cities, while exempting rural areas. As late as 2000 WI still exempted rural areas from voter registration!

Of course, during the Jim Crow era Southern states embraced voter registration as a means to prevent blacks from voting. For example, in 1903 the US Supreme Court ruled against 5,000 Black Alabama men kept off the voter rolls

Today, we still see battles over voter registration. Blue states are making it easier through innovations like automatic voter and same day registration, while red states are imposing burdens on third-party orgs that do voter registration drives, effectively shutting them down

So please register and check your registration to make sure it is current. But as you do so, remember you have to do this busywork because someone doesn't want you to vote