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tubemaster t1_ivpdxrt wrote

Reply to comment by nattarbox in Who else is surprised Q4 was so close? by 737900ER

Part of where they're coming from is when you register for a license, the RMV workers make a big deal of "do you want to register to vote today? say yes, it's easy might as well do it when it's convenient, oh and by the way it's technically illegal to vote if you're not a citizen but that's on you...". Similar to the organ donor thing...

Otherwise, yes since we don't have voter ID the license itself is kinda moot. However, it seems logical that someone who could in their conscience break one law that's not enforced too strictly (immigration) would have no problem breaking another that has the appearance of being the same (voting) even if there are other safeguards against it. While they might not go out of their way to do it, if an RMV worker poses the question to them they might think "why not..."

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Edit: note that a better alternative would be to simply not ask the voter registration question for someone who provides the alternative document set for undocumented immigrants. One simple change like that renders the whole issue moot, and we get the benefits of every driver being properly licensed and insured.

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737900ER OP t1_ivphj4k wrote

> note that a better alternative would be to simply not ask the voter registration question for someone who provides the alternative document set for undocumented immigrants. One simple change like that renders the whole issue moot, and we get the benefits of every driver being properly licensed and insured.

Shouldn't this be the workflow today given that people with Green Cards or long-term visas can get a Mass ID/DL but can't vote?

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SamRaB t1_ivqvy0i wrote

Undocumented workers never crossed my mind. I was remembering back to when I was a student and the requirements to prove I actually resided in this state vs the one I had moved from. I think at the time someone explained to me it was to prevent friends visiting friends for a couple of weeks from getting limited street parking permits in the area, which made sense at the time. Now, not really as much. Time is funny.
Reading this thread I'm not even sure I voted the way I finally settled on seeing that it was questioned backwards. At least now I get why it was a question in the first place. More info would definitely have been helpful.

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