Voter registration should be easy and universal. Oregon is doing its part. Voters in there can now register to vote online, joining Kansas, Arizona and Washington in letting new voters register online. No more hunting down forms. More a technology that more people, especially under 30, use for everything else. It’s not the only answer read more
From the Brookings Institute- After three consecutive years’ of governor vetoes, the Rhode Island assembly succeeded in enacting into law a teen voter pre-registration bill. It joins Hawaii and Florida, as well as Puerto Rico, in permitting pre-registration for teenagers. Click here to read the press release.
The DC Council has unanimously passed an election reform bill that includes Same Day Registration and asks the District to look at implementing a system of universal voter registration.See this statement from Miles Rapoport, President of Demos.
Germany’s federal election was yesterday, re-electing Angela Merkel for a 2nd term as Chancellor. In honor of my sister Hilary, who is studying abroad in Berlin right now, here’s an interesting piece on how elections work in Germany. In a nutshell, Germans have 2 votes. The 1st vote (seen on the left side of this read more
A report from the Brennan Center details voter registration systems in 16 other countries compared to the United States’ system, gathering best practices and suggestions for reform of US registration methods. Check out where the US falls when compared to other major countries on the scale of voter vs. government responsibility for registration! Chart from read more
Consider: An estimated three million were turned away or forced to vote provisionally due to a registration problem on Election Day Only 70-75% of US eligible voters are registered. That is the lowest registration rate by far among advanced democracies, almost all of which use a form of automatic voter registration. Even in Iraq registration read more
The chair of the Election Assistance Commission made a case for universal voter registration in the New York Times recently, calling its enaction “the single most important thing that Congress can do right now.” She also advocated the requiring of states to provide early voting. Read the article.
A policy summary draft on Universal Voter Registration was recently released for review by the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program. The summary highlights problems with existing voter registration systems, and offers suggestions for implementing universal voter registration, such as: • Providing federal funds for states taking steps toward universal voter registration• Requiring “permanent voter read more
