Recently, there has been a push for the federal government to begin automatically registering males for the Selective Service (SS) when they reach 18 years old. Most people…I like to think…know that when a male turns 18, they should go to the post office and retrieve the SS registration form, fill it out, and mail it in. This not only registers the person for the draft (if it is ever enacted again), but it also registers that person for future federal help, including federal student loans and other opportunities.
When I turned 18, my parents told me to go straight to the post office and get it taken care of so that I didn’t have to worry about it later. This was looked at equally to registering to vote. Get it done so there’s no question about it later. Sadly, not all parents know that this is something that has to be done. My husband’s parents knew it had to be done because they were both in the military. I’ve come across others that were shocked when I asked if their teen had registered for the SS. They almost lost their minds and wanted to know why I was asking. I just said that it was something required. They were shooketh. Like it was something I had pulled out my ass to sound smart or something. C’mon lady! We all know this has to be done. Why you lookin’ so taken aback?
The thing that bothers me about all this is that the government doesn’t make this sound like it’s going to be such a huge ordeal. All they have to do is set up a query that would search the national database of Social Security numbers and find out who at that time is turning 18. Those that are found are automatically registered. It has to be done anyway so why not? That takes something off the minds of all teenage males because it’s done.
My main issue with this is this…..if finding out who turns 18 from Social Security numbers in a database to register them for the SS, why the hell are we not doing the same thing and registering people to vote when they turn the US legal voting age of 18 for everyone? We know why, but that’s a logical question. To me, there should be a national voter database. Everyone alive that is a citizen of the US turned 18 at some point. To be able to vote, it was up to the person to go to the county seat of residence and register to vote. When you register in the US, you are asked to declare a political party to take part in their primaries. Do I think that is necessary? No. We shouldn’t have to declare a party. We should just have to pick which person we want for the position. But, since the US has republicans and democrats, those parties have to hold primaries to narrow down the candidates to run in the main elections in November. Ugh! I’m sure someone will be like….”This is the way and the reason we have to do things like this!” I’m sure there is a reason whether it’s fucking stupid or not, but I think we could handle elections so much easier. Stay with me here.
I believe that we should have a nationwide voter database. I believe that we should have all the information that is relevant for each person including Social Security number, address, driver’s license number, party affiliation, and preferred gender. When it is time to vote, say a primary, the citizen logs into a highly secure website and answers questions and provide information to prove their identity. Then, the person can cast their votes and enter them. I know, people are screaming right now because technology isn’t safe and someone can change the votes. That’s why I believe that a server be created for vote tabulations that is governed by a group of people that are not accessible by the current government and the server be stored in a highly secured location. The people over the server can be made up of a ten person board consisting of both repubs and dems. As the votes are cast, there can be a televised tote board so that everyone in the country can see real time results so that we aren’t left to wake up on the following Wednesday morning to find out if our candidate won or not.
Now, I’m not stupid. I understand that there are problems with this scenario.
1) Not everyone in the US has access to the internet.
2) What’s the best way to prove someone’s existence and that the person’s vote was cast by said person?
3) What level of security (if available) can be placed on this server so that no one in the world can hack into it and change votes? I don’t know if that exists yet, but that gives the US the fire under our asses to create such a security.
4) We need to make sure that the current asshole billionaires in the US have absolutely nothing to do with setting up said server or the location it is kept. Keep their grubby hands off of everything dealing with any of this.
5) What are we going to do with the old people that give us two days of their year to sit around a polling place to help guide voters who should already know what they need to do?
The husband and I had a long conversation today regarding voting in the US, especially in the state of Georgia. Voter identification has not been a problem here in Georgia because you can’t cast a vote if you don’t have some form of official ID. That can be a state issued ID, a state issued driver’s license, a military ID, or your US issued passport. It has to be a photo ID so a birth certificate will not work. This has been the rule in GA voting for decades. We have 159 counties in GA which means that the county seat isn’t far from anyone living in either county. That goes back to the foundation of Georgia so that people did not have to travel far to reach the seat of government. In that case, anyone in any county in the state has easy access to get their form of identification to vote.
Saying that, however, does not make an excuse if the state requires another form of identification simply to be able to vote. To be honest, that would be illegal because causing someone to have to purchase a special ID for voting would be akin to a poll tax which has been made unconstitutional. And, shouting it to the people in the back with hearing aides, that would be targeting many people in the state that are less fortunate whether that being the disabled, those living without modes of transportation, or those in a situation where they do not have the financial resources to purchase said ID.
In the current shit storm that is our US government, we have people who are trying to create barriers for people to vote. We see new ways popping up every day. The most simple thing to pass is the Voting Rights Legislation. There needs to be a clearcut way for every citizen in the US to be able to cast a ballot. No handicap, no race, no gender, and no party affiliation should be a basis to impede someone’s constitutionally granted right to vote. The only people who are making a big hubbub about voting issues is republicans. They’re pissy because they can’t seem to win the popular vote because many people hate who they have in their ranks. They want anything they can get for themselves and they want regular, normal, every day people to have every problem imaginable that will keep them from voting in a different direction than what they want. It’s something that has been in the conservative mindset ever since Abraham Lincoln. If Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson were still alive, they would be drinking it up with the current republican party members. I don’t know if they would like Drump, but they would be right along with the rest of the party that hates anyone that isn’t a cisgendered WASP…..White Anglo-Saxon Protestant if you didn’t know already.
I’m inching closer and closer to the age of 50. When I was a teen or in my twenties, I never imagined that this country would be this close to hell. If a hell exists, I think people living today would arrive and be like…..”It’s a bit hotter than I’m used to, but there’s still a devil leader that oppresses every soul around him. We’re used to that.” It’s sad that we live in a country where many feel that their vote doesn’t matter because of the electoral college. In old times, the electoral college could see that a person was a dumbass and the electorates could block the vote and install someone that could handle the job. In many states, it is illegal for an electorate to vote contrary to the popular vote of the people. As I have said more times than I can remember….the intelligence of the few will never overpower the ignorance of the many. We live in a majority rule society. The electoral college fucks that up entirely, but that’s generally how things work. If you’re in a club of ten people and you vote on something, if six people vote for it, it’s going to pass. That means if 77.3 million people vote for an orange felon, he wins. It sucks and there’s nothing that can be done other than filling a casket, but the majority of the voters that took the time to cast their ballot said they wanted a dumbass and he got it. Ignorance over the intelligent.
We can only pray that things get better. If you’re a praying person, pray for ending. Pray for peace or the destruction of the country causing most of the problems and those who are backing them. Pray that we can manage to make life better in this country for everyone no matter the race or the financial stability. Most of all, pray that we can get our education system under control and get dumbass people out of positions of power that are fucking education up for the rest of us. To get things better, sometimes things and people standing in the way need to be eradicated in whatever way possible. Just do me a favor. If you’re going to try to correct the path of history, go to a range or a gravel pit and practice. Don’t just go willy nilly to a rally and think that you’re a marksman. Make it count.