Voting rights being threatened in several states

Fee · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:57 am

And no, not everyone has a social security number

mumbles · **Joined:** Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:53 pm **Posts:** 2667

I have a social security number! I mostly use it to take jobs from Americans.

lepelaar · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:15 am

My mom had a social security number and paid taxes when she lived in the States but she never became a citizen.

supercarrot · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:26 am

monkeytoes wrote:

supercarrot wrote:

if they get rid of electoral college, then it won't matter which state you vote in.

does everybody not have a social security number? if you pay taxes (or have ever paid taxes in the past), you should be able to vote. instead of having votes tied to a name, they should be tied to a social security number. that way there is no overlap, therefore no fraud.

taxpayer =/= citizen

i'm sure they could easily have a database that would disqualify certain social security numbers whether the person isn't of age or if they're not a citizen.

kimba · **Joined:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:44 pm **Posts:** 1922

monkeytoes wrote:

supercarrot wrote:

if they get rid of electoral college, then it won't matter which state you vote in.

does everybody not have a social security number? if you pay taxes (or have ever paid taxes in the past), you should be able to vote. instead of having votes tied to a name, they should be tied to a social security number. that way there is no overlap, therefore no fraud.

taxpayer =/= citizen

Yeah. My husband is a permanent resident, but not a citizen, so he can't vote. He does have a SSN.

mumbles · **Joined:** Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:53 pm **Posts:** 2667

supercarrot wrote:

i'm sure they could easily have a database that would disqualify certain social security numbers whether the person isn't of age or if they're not a citizen.

Social Security numbers aren't unique, so I'm pretty sure this is impossible in principle, at least not without excluding lots of voters. Which is a problem, because we have no way of knowing whether those voters are elderly, minorities, or college students.

supercarrot · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 2:08 pm

just mumbles wrote:

supercarrot wrote:

i'm sure they could easily have a database that would disqualify certain social security numbers whether the person isn't of age or if they're not a citizen.

Social Security numbers aren't unique, so I'm pretty sure this is impossible in principle, at least not without excluding lots of voters. Which is a problem, because we have no way of knowing whether those voters are elderly, minorities, or college students.

they're not unique? i had no idea. do they recycle them when people die? or do they actually give 2 people the same active number at the same time?
(if it's just that they recycle numbers from dead folks, i see no reason why the database would get confused. just append another 2 numbers at the end and when a number is recycled, they'll make it 123-45-6789-02 then it'll be unique. (or not. a dead person's voting history shouldn't affect the subsequent user's ability to vote. i highly doubt the turnover rate is within a day. so a person's vote won't be voided by a new person's. and if the deceased used a mail-in-ballot, it would make it more tricky, but not impossible.)

lavawitch · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:48 pm

Eliminating the clunky electoral college system doesn't address the issue of state and local elections.

mumbles · **Joined:** Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:53 pm **Posts:** 2667

supercarrot wrote:

they're not unique? i had no idea. do they recycle them when people die? or do they actually give 2 people the same active number at the same time?

The latter. Mostly as a result of mistakes. Often two people with the same name, just to make matters worse.

Quote:

(if it's just that they recycle numbers from dead folks, i see no reason why the database would get confused. just append another 2 numbers at the end and when a number is recycled, they'll make it 123-45-6789-02 then it'll be unique.

I don't see how this solves anything. You can append anything you like to the SSN in the database, but the voter has no way of knowing that you've done that, so you still can't uniquely identify them.

This is also very insecure, for a proposal that's (nominally) meant to secure our elections. There's a reason the US has a runaway problem with identity theft.

I'm sure it would work, though: after implementing this proposal, in-person voter fraud would be almost non-existent!

supercarrot · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:32 pm

lavawitch wrote:

Eliminating the clunky electoral college system doesn't address the issue of state and local elections.

what's the issue with them? (i was talking about federal elections.)

starrynight87 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:28 pm

graffitipassion wrote:

Ugh. College students are "foolish" voters. Yeah right. They are educated voters trying to shape the world they are about to live and work in. And surprise, it's not what the previous generation (or two generations) wants.

My aunt told me I haven't been in the real world long enough and seen enough to really understand politics.

starrynight87 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:01 pm

Fee wrote:

And no, not everyone has a social security number

I thought all legal citizens did.

Angelina · **Posted:** Fri Aug 31, 2012 7:05 am

starrynight87 wrote:

Fee wrote:

And no, not everyone has a social security number

I thought all legal citizens did.

Is there such a thing as an illegal citizen?

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Voting rights being threatened in several states

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