New computer glitch may have lost new voter registrations | Hacker News Reader

New computer glitch may have lost new voter registrations

newjerseyglobe.com

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I will keep saying this until I am blue in the face: The voting process should not be a "trade secret"[1]

NJ also has had problems this year with their manual process. [2]

I honestly don't understand how everyone can feel so indifferent about this issue that is the cornerstone of America.

1 - https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190706/17082642527/votin...

2 - https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/paterson-city-counc...

What nonsense. Calling up saying their registration didn’t go through, so they can’t vote. So why not just register them on the phone at that moment? This infuriates me. It’s 2020. Voting should be frictionless and easy and we continue to hear stories like this.

I know that, as an election officer, the easy thing to do is have the voter cast a provisional ballot on the spot.

The voter then has to get down to the court house in the next day or two to sort out the details.

Elections are not rocket surgery, and neither is database maintenance.

> Since the voter registration deadline was June 16, local election officials are forced to turn these voters away.

Agreed. Given the history of one of the US political parties toward voter suppression, I tend to assume malice rather than incompetence in these cases.

Ha! There’s shenanigans that happen in primaries for both main parties involved. The intersection of incumbents, party favorites and upstart occasionally lead to suspicious activity (famously Chicago in the runnup to Kennedy’s nomination).

This happened to me after I moved to NJ recently. When I told someone about this at a coffee shop, they said "it's because your last name is Putin" (I'm Russian). :/

> It’s not possible for someone who registers at a motor vehicle agency to prove they did. “The MVC does not issue a receipt for voter registration,” Hooker said.

Found the problem: incompetence

As a former NJ resident for 10 years, people wonder why I have such a large disdain for them. You see, it's not just 1 particular thing that infuriated me, but over time, it was systematically clear that NJ does not have your back. Medical bill protections, business insurance laws, filing complaints, unemployment... etc. Each instance is deserving of its own post, but I will save that for later.

When compared to NYC, people often cite NJ as being "a good deal" financially. However, I beg to differ. You get what you pay for, and NJ isn't an exception. NJ is good to play it safe, but when the world becomes a complex system of 100s of points of failure in your life, you can be certain that it will not work in your favor.

From a cultural perspective, NJ really epitomizes "let's find the best deal." If their residents have self selected themselves by that line of reasoning, what do you think will happen to each respective system, which was built by them? Shortcuts here, not paying attention there...etc. You get the idea.

Point is, NJ is called the dump of NY for a reason. It's not because of one particular reason, but after a while, you'll start to notice how they are inept as a government.

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