Notes from Sweden

The Swedish-language, American-based blog “Det progressiva USA” quotes the following from the “New York Times” about the Republicans’ desire to tighten voting laws to keep power after November:

“Eva Charlene Steele, a recent transplant from Missouri, has no driver’s license or other form of state identification. So after voting all her adult life, Mrs. Steele will not be voting in November because of an Arizona law that requires proof of citizenship to register…in a spreading partisan brawl over new and proposed voting requirements around the country. Republicans say the laws are needed to combat fraud, especially among illegal immigrants. Democrats say there is minimal fraud, if any, and accuse Republicans of suppressing the votes of those least likely to have the required documentation — minorities, the poor and the elderly — who tend to vote for Democrats.”

This is one place where Sweden scores over the US. If you have a right to vote in Sweden, you get a “voting card” in the mail. You have to show this and an ID when you vote. There is no voter registration. Everyone legally living in Sweden is registered at an address, for tax purposes. That means you can vote.

If you aren’t a Swedish citizen, but have lived here long enough, you get to vote for local elections, but not for parliament. That is indicated on your “voting card”.

On the other, what happens next is right out of the 19th century. When you vote here, you stuff a ballot for a particular party into the appropriate envelope for parliament, county council or municipal council. The official list of candidates for that party for that election is printed on the ballot. If there is someone you especially like you can check them, and they get a little priority push. But you can’t cross off someone you don’t like.

Then all those paper ballots are counted by hand. What is amazing is that they are almost all counted by midnight on election day. But why such an advanced IT country muddles on with paper ballots is a mystery.