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People who register for Boston parking permits would be automatically registered to vote under councilor's proposal

The Boston City Council today approved a proposal by Councilor Josh Zakim (Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, Mission Hill, West End) aimed at registering more people to vote.

Among the proposals in his possible ordinance, which now goes to Mayor Walsh, is automatically registering people who apply for Boston resident parking permits - unless they opt out - making voter-registration forms available to people who apply for library cards and alerting high-school students nearing the age of 18 that they can register to vote.

Zakim's proposal would also give high-school students who are registered to vote some time off on Election Day to vote before school - provided they bring proof of their voting with them to school.

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Comments

That's one way to make sure car owners have more influence in the political system.

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I have forwarded the same proposal in the 12 odd years that I've run for office. Change the voting cycle so that the vote for President is at the same time as the vote for Mayor. I have talked with the elections department and they agree that the proposal would save millions of dollars (roughly 9 million the last time I asked) and would of course double voter turnout.

I have asked every elected city councilor in debates about this repeatedly. They refuse to answer why they won't support it, let alone introduce it.

So, bottom line: the City saves millions and doubles voter turnout. Yet not a single elected official will introduce this.

Stop believing that these folks care about voter turnout. They like the system just the way it is, with low voter interest and turnout. It makes it easier and cheaper to manage elections and gives them the option (Steve Murphy, Zakim, Presley) to run for higher office while retaining a safe seat.

This is all a distraction to make people think they care.

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Says more about politics and politicians than it does about the people.

Getting them registered to vote unless they OPT OUT says even more about this politician.

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You still have made a choice.

Piss off, Zakim. To quote Bob Knight to Jeremy Schaap: "You have a long way to go to be as good as your dad." What a complete sickness liberalism is.

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To consistently prove what an absolute moron you are. Zakim is genuine is his desire to get more people to the ballot box. Add to that, he scares the shit out of old time hacks like Galvin and once again, you seem to be threatened by and insulting someone of your age group who actually matters, unlike yourself.

And if liberalism is a sickness, have they come up with a term for what you're obviously infected with yet, nitwit?

Now you piss off.

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It's called "Asperger's."

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I am so terribly sorry for whatever constellation of events have befallen you. I see your pain and bitterness in almost every post you make. I believe you are truly unhappy and it breaks my heart every time I see evidence of it. I sincerely wish you the best and hope you find your way to some kind of joy in life.

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Poor Will.

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I basically want people to be happy.

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I feel bad for Will now. I had no idea he was an Aspy.

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Quoting Rush lyrics from their Ayn Rand worshiping phase as if they were some kind of deep insight instead of misfit-bright-boy adolescent moaning. Hilarious.

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But Neil Peart now identifies as a Democrat.

In a June 2012 Rolling Stone interview, when asked if Rand's words still speak to him, Peart replied, "Oh, no. That was forty years ago." https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-neil-peart-on-rushs-new-lp-a...

In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Peart stated that he supports the Democratic Party. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/from-rush-with-love-cover-st...

Of course, these are just excerpts, which is why I included the articles. Especially since, by reading them, you can see one version of where it all goes from 2112.

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I remember my rockers as how they were, not as they are. I'm not shocked that Mr. Peart would support Democrats: He has money. A shame that he also appears to be a person of false modesty, which is how I would classify many registered Dems with money.

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Neil Peart! That's a good one!

Peart used to travel around on his own tour bus, separate from the other members. Why? He used to like to stay at different hotels than the other guys as he had a..penchant...for women in a certain profession that shall remain nameless.

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Just because someone has a Boston Parking Permit doesn't mean they are eligible to vote in MA, let alone Boston.

This is bullshit. If someone is interested enough in politics to vote they can register like everyone else does at City Hall or when they renew their ID with the state at the RMV or elsewhere.

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I'll never understand this line of thought people have, the "I hate politics" crowd. It impacts every aspect of your life, at a local, regional, state, federal and hell even international level. Why wouldn't you care?

I mean for me, automatic voter registration and a national voting holiday are in order.

Also while we are on the topic, lets actually charge some market rate for these parking permits and it can deal with the "how will we pay for this crowd."

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If you don't care about politics, it means there's nothing eating you.

In an ideal world, no one should have to care about politics. People should be able to live their whole lives without having to deal with government in their day-to-day activities. Yeah, you pay your taxes and get your driver's license, but going to the store to get food, getting to work, all of that you should be able to do without having to deal with government.

The fact that so many people seem to live this life is a good thing. It means government isn't causing a problem for them.

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People should be able to live their whole lives without having to deal with government in their day-to-day activities.

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Put down the Atlas Shrugged and the hand lotion, dude! That ain't natural!

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I can't argue with that approach because it does seem to work at least some of the time.

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If pointing out hypocrisy in a person were a refutation, then everything would be refuted.

Public education would be refuted if any advocates of public education had sent their kids to private schools.

Progressive taxation would be refuted if any of the advocates of progressive taxation structured their income as capital gains or took a mortgage interest deduction.

Gun control would be refuted if any of its advocates owned guns or had armed security.

Pointing out hypocrisy can be used as a starting point to form a counter-argument, but it's not a magic button that invalidates whatever point the other side is making.

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... you've involved the government. if you go to the grocery store and trust that the food you eat is sanitary and safe to eat, you've involved the government. if don't drive and you get to work via the MBTA -- you guessed it --
government again.

we deal with the government with everything we do. and i get your point that if you're privileged enough you might not notice, but it's still there doing it's thing in the background. local, state, federal. you use the things that government creates for you.

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Government there, too!

It must be Roman's outhouses that are causing Belmont to dump all the raw sewage into the Mystic River.

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If you don't care about politics, it means there's nothing eating you

I would argue that if you don't care about politics, you're not carrying your weight and you're leaving the work up to somebody else.

In an ideal world, no one should have to care about politics. People should be able to live their whole lives without having to deal with government in their day-to-day activities.

Then who is going to do the work of government, the Easter Bunny?

but going to the store to get food, getting to work, all of that you should be able to do without having to deal with government.

Driving to the store on roads that were built by your employees in the government, then using currency that is backed by your government, to buy food, the health and safety of which is protected by your employees who create and enforce food safety laws, etc.....

These people work for you. If you're not going to watch the store, then who is?

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If the streets are paved, the garbage is collected, and the criminals are caught, then the government is doing its job. If the government is doing its job, you have no reason to care about it.

Let me throw a couple out there for ya to bring it home:

If you really care about transportation policy in Massachusetts, is it because you think the roads and the T are in great shape?

If you really care about drug laws, is it because you think they're just right?

When was the last time you really worried about the quality of the water coming out of your tap?

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When was the last time you really worried about the quality of the water coming out of your tap?

2016. Before that, 2010.

You don't know very much about the place where you live, do you?

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I even remember how this was before the retail bans on bottled water, so you could actually still get some in the stores.

But that's my point: you only have to think about government when it's failing to do its job. The fact that most people don't have to think about government is a good thing.

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There was no bottled water in our local stores - it ran out quickly. Trucks came by and dropped off flats and even palates of bottles, so people didn't have to say home from work.

Government trucks.

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How hard is it to admit that the failure of the water main was the responsibility of the government agency responsible for water delivery?

It's like the Burmese Junta or the North Koreans handing out international aid to their starving people and claiming how they "feed the people" all while ignoring why it is they were starving in the first place.

I tell you I'd care about the water system a whole lot more if those water main breaks and boil-water orders were a frequent thing and not a once-in-a-decade annoyance. The fact that it's rare means things generally work fine.

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Remember the drought?

Guess who was sending out trucks to bail out all the people who were on failing private wells?

It wasn't the libertarian society - it was Massachusetts Emergency Management.

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The current trend towards authoritarianism that we're seeing in our supposedly democratic government is enabled by those who "don't care about politics". There's a certain type of person who loves it if others just shut up and take their soma.

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Ban this, ban that. Doesn't matter if it solves a problem or if there's even a problem to be solved. Ban it anyway because feelings and we know better than you.

That's all from the left, buddy. Plastic bags and bottled water in the stores, thought police on university campuses, censorship on social media platforms, it's not all from the government but it's all authoritarian and it's all 100% coming from the left.

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You might have to behave yourself and not litter!

Meanwhile, what's this about a registry of journalists from Cheeto Mousselini?

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That's not authoritarian at all.

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Someone just went into talking points overdrive rather than thinking gear!

plastic bags and bottled water in the stores, thought police on university campuses

OMG!!!!! Oh NOOOES! Dogs and cats living together!

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wouldn't we need to start handing out some kind of proof of voting then?

(no, those stickers they sometimes have at the polling places don't count)

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Shouldn't be much problem since schools are polling places, a person's polling place is in the neighborhood they live in, and a person's school is in the neighborhood they live in - therefore it'd be the same...

Whoops. Forgot - Boston.

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I have to literally walk past the front entrance to two other polling places to reach mine.

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not including the two wheeled community. Remember when you pedal to the polls in September, unless you're not registered to vote....dammit.

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Wouldn't it deter undocumented immigrants from getting parking permits, if the application form asks about status to register them to vote?

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Zakim is using his current office to campaign for the office he is running for.

I mean, he could have proposed this 4 years ago, but somehow it is pressing now. I suppose politicians do this all the time. Even his opponent comes up with great ideas very 4 years, only to come up with some bad ideas the year after.

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Newbies don't register their cars in Massachusetts plus they don't vote among many other things they don't do.

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...all you can hear when someone makes a "mute proposal".

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that we have to make it automatic if you do something else? In a word, NO!

Instead of pandering to the "Oh, I'm too lazy to get off my butt and register to vote" crowd, how about we focus on eliminating the bureaucratic nonsense that discourages people to vote instead. Like abolishing the USELESS system of "Oh, it's a primary, so you have to choose a specific party's ballot (which automatically restricts your choices BEFORE you even enter the ballot box)". And getting rid of the NEEDLESS system of "We keep a record of whether you chose to vote in an election or not for the rest of your natural born days" as well. Not to mention the POINTLESS nonsense of "You didn't return your UNNECESSARY city or town census form this year, so your are automatically declared ineligible to vote unless you show an ID (isn't that supposed to be a no-no) and fill out a special form.

And of course it goes without saying that NO system to encourage voter participation is any good if you don't have several viable candidates for those voting to choose from. Which is why we need to drop these largely ineffective restrictions on campaign fundraising (which have done absolutely SQUAT to prevent candidates from raising the OBSCENELY LARGE amounts of cash the media is always reporting on) and focus on placing realistic restrictions on the amount of money they spend and how they spend it. Then more people might actually encouraged to vote, and more people may actually be encouraged to run for office as well.

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There are two aspects to automatic voter registration:

  1. Registering people where they should be registered
  2. Cancelling the registrations of people who shouldn't be registered

that

If we quit trying to burden the part-time town clerk in Turner's Falls with the task of figuring out whether or not you've moved, and instead involve agencies that already have the IT firepower to do it, and to whom you're either very likely or legally obligated to report your move (such as the RMV, MassHealth, etc.) then we get a cleaner and more accurate set of voter registration data all around.

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Instead of pandering to the "Oh, I'm too lazy to get off my butt and register to vote" crowd

You would have a better understanding of the issue if you set aside your prejudice that it's a matter of laziness and tried to actually understand the issues.

- Voter registration requirements and procedures are different in every state. Without resorting to Google, do you know who can register in MA?
- Do you know where to go to get registered in person? How would you find out?
- If you are working two jobs, when do you go to that place?
- How do you register online if you don't have internet access? This is a significant issue in many parts of the state. And hey, did you know that many people can't register online? I bet you didn't.
- If you're going to register by mail, where do you get the form?
- What are the registration deadlines?
- What if you need to vote absentee?
- Hey, what about voter ID? Do we have that in Massachusetts? Where do you get an ID?

When did you register, and how?

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If you have internet access, you print out a form the Office of the Secretary of State, fill it out, and throw it in the mail.

If you don't have internet access, you go to the town offices and do the same thing. Or call them during business hours and they'll tell you the same thing.

And honestly...every uniform procedure you come up with is "too onerous" for someone. Maybe registering for parking permits is too onerous for some people. Government is not about chewing people's food and tying their shoelaces for them.

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What percentage of communities in MA have internet access.

Take your time - it involves research!

Big hint: it isn't 100% or even close.

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don't have town offices?

Bigger hint: zero!

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Do you know the difference between "town offices" and "town offices" that are open 1/2 day every two weeks?

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It's a thing you can use to call the town office when it's open so they can tell you where to get the registration form and where to mail it to.

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As long as you don't mind using dialup, or wireless at 3G levels.

I didn't even look that one up. But now I'm curious. To the DTE I go...

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Drive west on Route 2. It starts getting spotty at Orange.

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With the possible exception of Gosnold. So that is 350 out of 351 municipalities.

I gotta give the person credit. At least they didn't ask about overall internet access in Massachusetts but concentrated on municipalities, which does include some small, remote areas. 11% of Massachusetts households lack internet access (2016 ACS,) but there's always the library, where one doesn't even need to print out the voter registration form- they have them already printed out.

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You will now be trapped into jury duty once registered

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Having to do your civic duty! THE WORST!

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Is old.

That's a myth, dear. Even if you don't register to vote, you are probably paying taxes on a house or a car or paying a water bill, etc.

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