It is National Voter Registration Day. Register if you must, but get mad doing it knowing that you have to do this busywork because someone wants to suppress your vote

We do not need voter registration. Little known fact: North Dakota does not have it. Indeed, most developed democracies in the world let an identification card serve as voter registration

The post-2000 Carter-Baker commission recommended to adopt the practice of other countries and provide a national identification card freely to every citizen (I stress these cards must be free and easily accessible - e.g., no requiring people to travel 100 miles for a card)

Why do we have voter registration? It was first adopted in the mid-1800s ostensibly to combat vote fraud (sound familiar?). But, state governments only required people living in large cities to register, where their political opponents happened to be located

During the South's Jim Crow era, White Southerners effectively used voter registration to prevent African-Americans from participating. Registrars would have odd hours or close their door if a person of color wanted to register to vote. And of course, there was lots of violence

Today, because the government does not proactively register people, we have problems with bloated voter registration rolls that are pointed to as causes of vote fraud. The solution seems always to impose more voting barriers, not to fix the root problem of voter registration

What would I do? Follow the recommendation of the Carter-Baker commission and enact a national id card that is free and available to everyone. Lacking that, automatic voter registration and same day registration. Or do what North Dakota does and have no voter registration