The baseline answer to this is that the federal gov't doesn't organize the elections, the states do.
Ah, it's a state-federal thing.
The taxes thing was just an example. Election rolls are done by the Gov't in Canada, and they do ask to use you personal information from your tax return to populate elections rolls, but they also do go door to door adding people to the list. (though not as often as they used to.) It's added expense for the gov't, and certainly not foolproof (when I was in university, they enumerated everyone in residence, even Americans), but it mostly takes partisanship out of the equation.
The fact that our election process is not nationalized is one of the greatest pains in my intellectual life. That and the continuing existence of the electoral college.
If we are so pro-democracy that we'll spend our children's futures into the ground to fight wars for it (apply liberal sarcasm here...pun intended), why can't we agree on consistent voting processes? It just makes no sense.
I'm going to vote tomorrow...taking a war 'n peace sized stack of reading materials. I don't care how long it takes.
Also, we have no national identity card, which would probably solve a number problems like this. Still don't get that.
There's a lot of paranoia about that, around here I hear objections to that based on 2nd amendment issues and religion. I think it's odd as well since everyone already has a SSN.
It's added expense for the gov't, and certainly not foolproof (when I was in university, they enumerated everyone in residence, even Americans), but it mostly takes partisanship out of the equation.
There are efforts to make voter registration easier, but they tend to be very politicized and partisan as well.
Huh, Wikipedia says that haven't done door to door enumeration in Canada since 1992, but I'm sure that I've been enumerated in the past 10 years.
I don't know if it is just me, but it seems like there has been a lot more effort to make people ineligible to vote ever since the 2000 election.
There's a lot of paranoia about that, around here I hear objections to that based on 2nd amendment issues and religion. I think it's odd as well since everyone already has a SSN.
As I understand it, the SSN was never supposed to be used for identification. There were fears of just such a thing and reassurances that this would NOT be the case.
Um...
I'm sure that I've been enumerated in the past 10 years.
Is that what you crazy kids are calling it these days?
Seriously!
There seems to be so much more effort to disqualify people than to help them to do their civic duty.
Voter registration efforts are grassroots while identity and disqualification efforts are national. What the fuck is up with that?
It stinks of 1984.
