Rockin' the Vote Boat...Sort Of

We are past the first decade of the 21st century, nearing certain doom at every special Mayan calendar date and Harold Camping “prophetic” readjusted utterance, and according to nearly every 80s classic film, we should definitely have flying cars by now. At best, we have vehicles that swim.

So, I guess I shouldn't be terribly surprised to find that California is only the eleventh state to pass a bill with slight adjustments to voting standards today.

SB 397, the bill announced by Gov. Jerry Brown in early October, will allow the state to begin voter registration online next year. Election officials and the Department of Motor Vehicles will match registration information submitted online with DMV records. Instead of the often standard 22 day pre-election deadline, next year California voters will be allowed to register until five days before Election Day. 

The change certainly opens up the opportunity for the lazy and procrastinating, which I'm sure they might appreciate if they actually “had time” to watch the news and discover this. The Rock The Vote campaign is probably banking on California's youth to suddenly skip their highlights appointments to care about current events when it's so easy to register.

The only thing is, they've still got to actually show up at a polling place, come Election Day.

Are they expecting us to be impressed? Considering the ordered presidential recounts in recent years, you'd think California and the other tenthe other 39 for that matter-- would take things a little more seriously.

Where are the retinal scans and fingerprint identifications? We're selecting candidates that speak for us for years. They are our voices. Shouldn't we make sure that voter fraud possibilities go down, not increase? I could easily see this going awry. 

Since I first registered in Manassas, I don't even have to show photo identification to vote anymore. I'm disappointed. I have to show my ID more often to grocery store clerks than government officials. Does nobody care? I will be forced to throw a Twitter fit if there's a recount again next year.

Bring on the blood samples. DNA confirmations. I'll be there; American and ready to vote all the way. Come on, Virginia—you've finally gotten us smoke-free restaurants. Let's just skip this whole lame, online registration and shoot for the future that's taking way too long to arrive. Yes, we can... update.