Allowing citizens to register to vote on Election Day is a smart idea that boosts turnout and makes things easier for the most mobile Americans. It has been tested for problems for decades in the pioneering states of Maine, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Fraud is almost non-existent and implementation costs are minimal. And Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Jon Tester (D-MT) want it to be a nationwide practice. To that end they have reintroduced the
Same Day Registration Act, an amendment to the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Jordain Carney
reports:
“The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy," [Klobuchar] said in a statement. "We should be doing everything we can to foster this right."
Tester added that the legislation could help combat "voter disenfranchisement."
"States that continue to deny folks access to the polls on Election Day are fueling voter disenfranchisement,” Tester said. “Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy and we should make every effort to increase voter participation and allow more folks to have a say in their representation.”
Quite right. We
should make every effort. Not allowing people to register to vote on Election Day suppresses turnout.
Currently, the majority of states impose a registration deadline as much as 30 days before an election. But, starting in the mid-70s, 13 states and the District of Columbia have passed Election Day registration laws, although three have not yet implemented them. In addition to the three pioneers and D.C., Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire and Wyoming have implemented the reform. Three other states have passed it and will soon implement it—California (2016), Hawaii (2016) and Illinois (June 2015). Two other states, North Carolina and Maryland, have passed same-day registration during early voting, but not for Election Day itself.
Bills proposing the reform were introduced in 17 other states in the past two years, but none passed. Some never emerged from committee.
Why does this matter? Find out below the fold.
For one thing, it means higher turnout. Of the top five states with the highest voter turnout in the 2012 election, four offered Election Day registration. In fact, average voter turnout in those states was more than 10 percentage points higher than in states without it.
Among the chief beneficiaries of the reform are the very people who are in the lower rungs of participation at the polls, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. Election Day registration:
Assists geographically mobile, lower-income citizens, young voters and voters of color. Keeping voter registration records current is a big challenge under current systems, which place the onus of updating records on the individual. Census data show that over 36 million people in America moved between 2011 and 2012, and nearly half of those moving had low-incomes. Young adults of all income levels also move more frequently—for school, for jobs, for family. Same Day Registration offers those who have recently moved but failed to update registration records another opportunity to register and vote. Research indicates that allowing young people to register to vote on Election Day could increase youth turnout in presidential elections by as much as 14 percentage points.
Another benefit: The reform limits the need for provisional balloting. Such ballots are offered to citizens who say they are registered but whose names cannot be found on voter rolls. A federal
study showed that one in four such ballots that were cast in the 2008 presidential election were subsequently rejected, often because of arcane rules.
Foes have attacked Election Day registration on the grounds that it would promote fraud. But voter fraud is minuscule. A study by Demos of voter fraud in the six states with the longest record of Election Day registration revealed just 10 instances between 1999-2005.
The underlying fear of foes is that Election Day registration will give a partisan advantage to Democrats because of the demographics of people who are most likely to make use of the reform. Some people unsurprisingly want to stop certain other people from voting. Keeping obstacles in the way of people wanting to vote may be as American as apple pie, but that doesn't make it any less undemocratic.
Senators ought to be lining up at the door to co-sponsor the Klobuchar-Tester bill, get it a committee hearing and mark-up and a vote in the full Senate. Let the opponents explain why they don't want to make voting easier for people most likely to be excluded by obsolete laws.