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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • even then you don’t need this recurring manual registration mess.

    There is no recurring manual registration. You only need to register once in your lifetime.

    If you move, you have to update your ID within 60 days, and every time you update your ID, they update your voter registration automatically. (unless you decline).

    That has been federal law since 1993, and is pretty much equivalent to European standards.

    You really have to go out of your way to not be registered to vote.



  • Land Contract (sometimes called “contract for deed”) provides all of those same benefits, from the same people, to the same people, as renting. It is a bit of a misnomer in that it applies to any real property, and not just “land”.

    The difference from renting is that with the land contract:

      1. The monthly price is fixed for the life of the contract;
      1. After three years (in my state), the occupant begins gaining equity.

    Grad students, visa holders, travel nurses, etc. might not necessarily want to purchase the property they are staying in, but they might also find themselves living in that area for longer than they expect. A land contract gives them the security of fixed housing costs and the flexibility of being able to walk away at any time and for any reason. They also allow the occupant to begin earning equity while still living in “temporary” housing, allowing them to save more for the future.

    But, in our current market, renting is more lucrative to the landlord.

    So how do we drive landlords to offer land contracts instead of rental agreements? We provide property tax exemptions to owner-occupants. We increase the nominal property tax rate: run it sky high. But, the owner-occupant exemption means the effective tax rate for homeowners (including land contract buyers) doesn’t actually increase. Only investors - people who own housing they don’t live in - will be paying that punitively-high tax rate.

    With that sky-high tax on investment properties, today’s landlords will be incentivized to become private lenders. They will be taking the exact same financial risk on the exact same people, but now those people will be called “buyers” instead of “tenants”.

    The only “renting” that will still remain is from landlords who live in one unit of a 2-4 unit property, or a roommate agreement, or short-term use like hotels and motels.

    Home ownership is the single best predictor of financial prosperity in the US. Every housing contract should include some sort of provision for equity.


  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todaytoMildly Infuriating@lemmy.worldGoddammit Texas!
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    17 days ago

    But it’s very difficult for a lot of people.

    It is, indeed, but the proper solution here is to lift them up to the bar, not lower the bar down to them.

    Lack of ID prevents you from getting and keeping a job, attending school, accessing the banking system, getting a PO box, getting licenses. Being unable to vote is the least of your problems.

    The proper solution is not to figure out how to make voting accessible to those without an ID. The proper solution is to get them an ID.


  • Yes, there are people who can’t obtain an ID card, for whatever reason. A European citizen who couldn’t obtain an ID card would have the exact same problems voting that an American citizen does. I don’t have a systemic solution for that. This would seem to be something that would need to be handled on a case-by-case basis, possibly involving the judicial system and a court order. It also doesn’t seem to be a particularly common problem. I’d bet all the money in my pockets that OP does, indeed, have some sort of ID card.

    We have a remedy for this: Provisional ballots. Cast your vote now, and resolve any clusterfuck with registration later.


  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todaytoMildly Infuriating@lemmy.worldGoddammit Texas!
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    17 days ago

    That’s called privilege. You literally don’t realize what a burden it is for some people to comply with voter registration requirements, because your life is such that it’s easy for you.

    The “privilege” you are talking about is the exact same privilege the parent comment assumed:

    I just have to show up with my ID, doesn’t matter if it’s for the EU parliament or the local city senate.

    The “privilege” you are talking about is “having an ID card”. Every time you obtain, renew, replace, update, or otherwise contact the state bureau handling ID cards (usually, the DMV), they are required, under federal law, to update your voter registration unless you specifically decline.

    The European standard is “get an ID card, show up and vote”. We implemented the European standard back in 1993.