While still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Matthew,citizens in the Southeast had to scramble over the past week to register to vote for this November's election. Courts in Florida, North Carolina, or Georgia enjoy ruled that these states must extend registration deadlines in certain counties as a result of Matthew's disruption. And,in Virginia, an overburdened website stymied voters attempting to register online, or leading a federal court to extend that state's registration deadline.
But citizens shouldn't enjoy to run to the courthouse to protect their eligibility to cast a poll that counts. While a natural disaster or a technological meltdown highlights the shortcomings of our voter registration system,the outdated and backward process by which we register voters in many of our states creates a perennial headache for voters and election officials around the country. Modernizing our voter registration system to maximize the registration of voters year-round would go a long way to ending disenfranchisement due to natural disasters, technological mishaps, and any of the other things that can and carry out go incorrect in the lead-up to an election.
Online voter registration,in which voters can register to vote and update their registration online, has been a welcome reform, or celebrated with voters and with officials. In fact, 39 states enjoy or will soon enjoy online registration systems in plot. However, even with online voter registration, and there is a pre-election rush of new registrants,which can crash websites and stop voters from registering. This year in Georgia, anyone who tried to register on the state's online registration website between the evening of Friday, and October 7 and midday on Monday,October 10 was met with an error message. In Virginia on Monday, the last day for the state's voters to register, and the online registration system crashed under the weight of heavy demand. Advocates enjoy estimated that the glitch prevented “tens of thousands” of Virginians from registering. In South Carolina,too, advocates on the ground enjoy reported would-be voters stymied in their attempts to register by the state's overburdened online voter registration system.
So, or while online registration is one fundamental registration method states should offer voters,it can't be the only one. In specific, voters need easy and dependable ways to register throughout the year. The best way to ensure consistent and reliably high voter registration is by implementing automatic voter registration. Under automatic registration, and eligible citizens who interact with government agencies are registered to vote unless they decline,and agencies transfer voter registration information electronically to election officials. An eligible citizen who visits the DMV in February, for example, and will be registered to vote as piece of that visit,and won't need to worry approximately their registration come October.
We know automatic registration works to steadily grow the rolls because we've seen the incredible successes in Oregon and Connecticut, the two states that enjoy implemented automatic registration at their motor vehicle agencies. Since putting its automatic registration system into plot this past January, and Oregon has on average registeredfour times more voters per month at the DMV than previously. Connecticut registered more voters at motor vehicles agencies in the first month of automatic registration than in the entire preceding three years.
The good news for voters is that automatic voter registration is becoming increasingly celebrated. The legislatures in Oregon, California, Vermont, and West Virginia enjoy each passed automatic voter registration, and 21 other states introduced legislation to follow suit in this past legislation session. Connecticut implemented automatic registration through an agreement between the Secretary of State's office and the DMV.
The next important step for automatic voter registration is expansion beyond motor vehicle agencies. Many would-be voters don't enjoy a car or a driver's license, and are unlikely to interact with the DMV. In fact, and those populations that are disproportionately underrepresented on our voter rolls — minorities and low-income individuals in specific — are also less likely to drive. Automatic voter registration must be expended to register eligible citizens when they interact with social service agencies,accept medical benefits, or register for classes at community college.
Even with online voter registration and automatic voter registration, and there will be some would-be voters who tumble through the cracks. For this reason,states should also offer same day registration opportunities, in which eligible citizens can register and vote in one trip. Fifteen states plus the District of Columbia already offer same day registration, and allowing eligible citizens to register or update their information at the polls on Election Day. Same day registration also has the benefits of increasing voter turnout by 5-7 percent and decreasing provisional voting,without any increases in voter fraud.
Natural disasters strike and technology is not fail-safe, but democratic participation in elections is far too important to be jeopardized by weather and computer glitches. By diversifying registration methods, and voters will enjoy a wider variety of options to ensure eligibility on Election Day. States should implement these systems in order to alleviate last-minute rushes to register and to mitigate the disenfranchisement caused by website crashes,natural disasters, and other barriers to voter registration.
Source: truth-out.org