Would you support ...

[Tender Branson]

This is how it works here:

2.1 Duty of Registration

Residential registration is mandatory in Austria. Any person establishing their residence in Austria is obliged to register with the respective competent authority within three (3) days of establishing the residence.

Responsible authorities to contact in this regard are:

• the registration office of the municipality office (Gemeindeamt) or the municipal authorities
(Magistrat) in cities

• in Vienna: the registration office of the municipal district offices (Magistratische Bezirksämter)

The following documents are to be furnished:

• completed registration form; the registration form can be obtained from the responsible
registration authorities, registry offices (e.g. in Vienna) or the Internet
• passport and birth certificate
• residence registration certificates for any other places of residence

The residence registration form (previously residence registration certificate, Meldezettel) must be signed by the lessee (the owner or the property management) and the tenant, submitted personally or by a person of trust or sent by post to the responsible residence registration authorities (Meldebehörde).

Upon registering in Austria, your personal data will automatically be saved in the Central Residence Registry (Zentrales Melderegister (ZMR)) and made available to various authorities.

Every person registered in Austria is assigned a dedicated number in the Central Residence Registry (so-called Central Residence Registry Number, “ZMR-Zahl”) which is shown on the residence registration certificate (Meldebestätigung).

http://www.ams.at/_docs/eurespubl_en.pdf

...

I think it would be good if the US had such a state of the art system, which tracks in-movements and out-movements in every town/county/state and also immigration and emigration to and from the US (currently there is no data about emigration in the US).

It would help register the voting-age population automatically, voter registration drives involving dubious companies like ACORN would be a thing of the past and it would also make possible a register-based Population Census on a yearly or 5-year basis which would cost only a segment of the current 20 or so Billion Dollars for the conventional Census.

What do you think ?

[Mehmentum]

Seems like it would be usefull if implemented well.

[Talleyrand]

I like the concept, but it seems to me that it would be a huge hassle to implement and an even bigger hassle to maintain in the long-term. However, it's better than what we have now by far.

[Tender Branson]

Seems like it would be usefull if implemented well.

The question only is how this is implemented in the US ?

Do you think the Census Bureau would establish the central database and the FEC is setting up the election database ? Or should the Census Bureau handle the registration database and the election database ?

Of course, every town, county, state would have to set up registration offices in all of their juristictions in which people could register and de-register.

Which would create the next problem: How (long) do you register the people ? In 1 day it would not be possible, because the town hall offices would burst because of the workload. Can people register over the Internet ? That would lessen the burden for the local bureaucrats typing in the data forms.

Of course, all of this would have to be discussed by experts over a reaaaaaaaalllly long time to make it work, so that there are no problems with implementing and maintaining it.

Of course the US doesn't have the bureaucratic traditions that most European countries have with population registers (I think the Austrians have a very long tradition of registers, the buildings register is already about 250 years old !), but remember that the implementation should actually work out well: Isn't the US home of many successful IT data compiling/providing companies ? Yet isn't able to have a well-functioning up-to-date register of all people or voters ? Laughable somewhat, but it should be doable with the right concept.

PS: Don't worry about the costs of implementing it: As I've said above, a population register that is up-to-date enables statisticians at the Census Bureau to conduct a register-based Census which would cost only 1/7th of the traditional Census. Currently, the Census costs 20 Bio. $, which means 17 Bio. $ could be saved on a 10-year timespan, which further means 1.7 Bio. $ could be used annually on the population-register ...

[Tender Branson]

More on how a "register-based Census" works, here in this English-speaking YouTube movie from "Statistics Austria" on the 2011 one here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFwtS32ovCk

The Presse newspaper called the 2011 Census, "the Census that nobody notices":

http://diepresse.com/home/panorama/oesterreich/635508/Die-Volkszaehlung-die-keiner-bemerkt

[Franzl]

Of course.

[politicallefty]

I would support this concept simply in order to make voting that much easier and less cumbersome.

[bedstuy]

I would support this but it's not going to happen any time soon.

I think a large segment of the Republican party would be vehemently opposed to this system.  People would file this under the heading of: Obama's socialist illuminati United Nations Conspiracy.  Then you would just have the run of the mill conservative argument that the United States can't afford to implement any new program ever.

[Franzl]

Then you would just have the run of the mill conservative argument that the United States can't afford to implement any new program ever.

Unless it's a tax cut. Or a war.

[Tender Branson]

I don't know though why Republicans would be so strongly opposed to this idea ...

Aren't they military nuts and car-loving people ?

So, they will have to sign up with the SSS anyway when they get 18 and when they buy a car they have to get a drivers license, so they are in 2 federal/state registers anyway. Just that it would be expanded to everybody, incl. women, illegals, non-voters, etc.

[Tender Branson]

Thinking about the SSS, do people like Franzl also have to register with them ?

And what are the punishments if you don't ?

And do you know anyone who did not register or refused ?

[bedstuy]

I don't know though why Republicans would be so strongly opposed to this idea ...

Aren't they military nuts and car-loving people ?

So, they will have to sign up with the SSS anyway when they get 18 and when they buy a car they have to get a drivers license, so they are in 2 federal/state registers anyway. Just that it would be expanded to everybody, incl. women, illegals, non-voters, etc.

If someone thinks that Obama/the UN/ the illuminati/liberals/ the Jews/et al is going to turn America into a totalitarian state, like for example Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck believe, they can't really be persuaded by logical arguments like that.  People tend to see any large program to maintain information about citizens as 1984-esque even if it isn't.

Thinking about the SSS, do people like Franzl also have to register with them ?

And what are the punishments if you don't ?

And do you know anyone who did not register or refused ?

The only punishment I can think of is not qualifying for federal student loans or jobs with the federal government.

[Napoleon]

Probably but the US may be too large to institute it efficiently.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

SSS is a joke. No one notifies them of address changes, which is technically required. Most guys just register to get student loans and forget about it.

[Franzl]

Thinking about the SSS, do people like Franzl also have to register with them ?

And what are the punishments if you don't ?

And do you know anyone who did not register or refused ?

I'm registered with the SSS, and you're technically required to if you're a US citizen, regardless of your country of residency. Interestingly, even non-citizens that reside in the United States also have to register.

The punishment if you don't? Nothing. It's not enforced. (I believe only like 25% of those that should be registered are.) But getting a government job and/or trying to get a student loan can be impossible if you weren't registered. I don't think I'll need either from the US, but it wasn't something I wanted to necessarily make impossible.

[greenforest32]

I don't know though why Republicans would be so strongly opposed to this idea ...

They want less people voting is why. Just look at their many cuts to early voting in 2011/2012 or them trying to kill same-day registration in states like Maine or Montana.

If there really was a conservative majority don't you think they'd try to make voting easier? Of course they will be opposed something that could lead to automatic registration as that means the voting pool will be expanded with the tens of millions of eligible but not currently registered voters (not that they'll all vote): http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/historical/tabA-10.xls

The only thing I can give them credit for at this point is not being terrible with online voter registration: http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/electronic-or-online-voter-registration.aspx