Citizen Linus

When I think about this, my concept of neutrality and unbiased media coverage gets very twisted. But hey, that's the land of freedom and truth, so they must be doing it right. :-)

Your suggestion (which I take literally), that his miniscule voting power can somehow outweigh that implicit support -- I think it's plain ridiculous.

The only way I see he could undo the damage, is to vocally oppose the status quo.

However, from my observations Linus does not seem like a political person. Which makes it a saddening paradox.

In Sweden we have a Civil registry that is maintained by our Tax Agency so that they can tax you correct. That seems to always be the top priority of any government to get the taxes. :)

Anyway, since for taxation purposes we have a Civil registry that is also used when voting. It is kept up to date and when it it time to vote, the government simply runs a query in the register to get the name and address of everyone that is eligible to vote.

If we temporary move a short period we simply ask for our post to be forwarded to the temporary address (done on internet in a few minutes), and the same thing is also done when moving permanently.

I recently moved to México, I registered that with the Swedish tax-agency in order to not be taxed in Sweden. And 3 weeks ago I got my voting papers for the 19th of September election in Sweden sent to my México address, I went to the Swedish embassy in México with my ID and voted. The whole thing took a total of 3 minutes at the embassy.

Granted, Sweden only have around 9 million citizens, so I guess we can do things not possible in other bigger nations. But it is pretty convenient. :)

In Britain every residence gets sent paperwork about once a year, and in any case before a major election. The envelope has an address but no name, and insists you open it and not redirect it under any circumstances. Inside is a list of people who are currently registered at that address. If the list is fine you can fill out a web form, call a phone number, or send back the form with just a signature.

Otherwise you correct the list, removing anyone who is no longer living there and adding new people, then post it back. If an election is held the latest register is used, everybody who can vote is sent a card telling them about the election, and fractions of the list are sent to every district. You don't need the card to vote, you just tell the officials your name and address, they give you a ballot and write the number of the ballot next to your name on their list.

Lying on the form, or at the election itself, is possible, and clearly sometimes happens, but with turnout so low it's difficult to justify any system which would reduce participation further, e.g. requiring ID to vote (although this is done in Northern Ireland where vote fraud had become endemic).

We have Local Register Offices that maintains databases of citizens. When you are born, you are registered in the database. If you move, you need to notify the Register Office of your new address. All in all, the process is quite seamless.

http://www.maistraatti.fi/en/