Both houses (of WA legislature) OK online voter registration

[TechBear_Seattle]

Both houses OK online voter registration

OLYMPIA — Washington would become the second state in the country to allow online voter registration under a measure passed by the Legislature on Monday.

The measure passed the Senate 30-17. It overwhelmingly passed the House last month and now heads to Gov. Christine Gregoire.

...

Only people with a Washington state driver's license or state ID would be able to register as voters online. They would have to provide their first and last names, dates of birth, addresses and driver's-license or state-identification numbers.

The full article can be read at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003659888_onlineregistration10m.html

I have a very, VERY bad feeling about this. All of the information needed to change your voter registration is on the license or ID, and how often do you provide this information to people every day? This is some of the first identification to be stolen because it is by far easier to obtain than credit card or bank account numbers. Now anyone can, at will, re-register and you won't know what happened until you fail to get your ballot in the mail (Washington is going to all mail-in ballots, which is another thing that makes me sick with dread.)

Don't these morons even think? In this day of ever increasing identity theft, why are they making it so damned easy to have our elective franchise stolen?

[bryant69]

1. I think the argument is that they want more people to register

And this is a way to accomplish that. In theory.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Making it very easy to comit election fraud will help how?

This is like keeping one's mind so open that your brain falls out.

It is already extremely easy to register to vote. You can register at the DMV, every post office, public library, fire station and police station have voter registration forms, plus you can download blank forms from the Secretary of State's office and print them out. At least with a mail-in form, they have a signature with which they can (in theory) validate a person's identity.

Anyway, getting people registered does nothing for getting people to the polls. In 2004, almost half of registered voters in Washington never bothered to cast a ballot; even more registered voters sat out the 2006 election. Getting people worthy of votes, however, is too damned hard apparently.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. Am I the only one who thinks this is a very bad idea? n/t