Join Nostr
2025-05-03 16:39:02 UTC

John Carlos Baez on Nostr: I just moved to Scotland and found this old letter in my mailbox. I feel like I'm now ...

I just moved to Scotland and found this old letter in my mailbox. I feel like I'm now in a civilized country.

In the USA, politicians use many tricks to reduce the number of people who can vote. In Florida, 21% of Black voting-age citizens are not allowed to vote.

In Scotland, I believe everyone over 16 who is a lawful resident gets to vote in Scottish parliament and council elections. That includes noncitizens like me.

(This does not apply to UK parliament elections. And I get the feeling that British politicians are more interested than Scottish ones in reducing the number of voters. But I'm new here.)

In Scotland, do they carefully check that you're a "lawful" resident before you can vote? Maybe not - look at the sentence in marked in red. They certainly didn't ask my wife who she was when she needed to go to the hospital for emergency care! That's another way they're civilized around here.