Brennan Center for Justice

Arizona currently has the Automated Registration at DMVs and Online Registration components of Voter Registration Modernization in place. Arizona also has electronic pollbooks in at least one county.

The excerpt below was adapted from an appendix to the 2010 report Voter Registration in a Digital Age.

Background
The Arizona Secretary of State authorized online voter registration in the spring of 2002 and launched it that July at a cost of under $100,000.  In 2005, officials further devoted several months’ work and approximately $30,000 to developing an automated system of voter registration at the Motor Vehicles Division (MVD), allowing branch offices to electronically transmit the registration data they collected to county election officials.

Until recently the state sent electronic registrations to most county offices in PDF form, which required local officials to manually copy data into their computers.  The exception was Maricopa County, which developed the capacity to receive direct data transfers in 2002.  In 2009 Arizona introduced a new version of its statewide voter registration database system which has allowed it to establish direct data transfers with all its counties, eliminating data entry.

Outcomes
Automated and online registration have transformed the process of voter registration in Arizona.  Mail-in registration, which made up 60 percent of all transactions as recently as 2001-02, fell below 20 percent in 2007-08.  Now online registrations predominate in election years and MVD registrations in off years.  Voters were quick to embrace both systems, and together they account for 70 percent of all registrations received between 2007 and 2009.

In Maricopa County, home to over half of all Arizona residents, officials have found that young voters are particularly drawn to online registration.  They recently determined that 18 to 34 year-olds, an age group that accounts for only some 25 percent of registered voters nationwide, have submitted 36 percent of all updates made through the online portal.  With regard to party preference, Maricopa County’s data suggest that online users are fairly typical of the general population.

Maricopa County officials have also found that electronic registrations are far less prone to defects than paper forms.  On August 17, 2009, they surveyed all records then “on suspense”—applications that contain incomplete, inaccurate, or illegible information, and which require further input from applicants.  Paper applications, which made up only 15.5 percent of all registrations received in 2009, accounted for over half of these suspended records.  Conversely, electronic submissions were a minority in the suspense pool despite accounting for over 84 percent of all registrations.

Cost savings have been substantial, particularly in the Phoenix area.  Maricopa County automatically reviews and accepts about 90 percent of the electronic transactions it receives, and officials there estimate they spend an average of 3¢ to process an electronic application compared to 83¢ per paper form.  As the county received 462,904 applications electronically in 2008, this represents savings of over $370,000.  Factoring in other savings on labor and printing costs, the county saved well over $450,000 in 2008.  In return, state officials estimate they spend a total of at most $125,000 annually to operate, enhance, and maintain the online and MVD systems.

How Paperless Registration Works in Arizona
Automated Registration. Visitors to MVD offices fill out and submit paper application forms in order to apply for or update a driver’s license or photo I.D. card.  The application form includes a yes/no question for voter registration, while a box next to this allows people to indicate party preference.  People who use the MVD’s website to change their address or request a duplicate license are also provided links to the registration portal.

When MVD employees receive paper forms from visitors, they scan the signatures and copy the data into their computers.  Each night the MVD system collects data from registrations flagged for voter registration and posts the full applications to a secure FTP site.  The state’s voter registration database system then automatically retrieves the applications and makes them available to county election offices the following morning.

County officials are responsible for verifying each person’s address, assigning her a precinct, and searching for duplicates—that is, determining whether she is already registered.  Officials in most counties perform these tasks themselves.  In Maricopa County, officials decided to automate their review process: the county computer system searches for duplicates and matches addresses automatically, and automatically accepts those applications that do not require further review.

Online Registration. Only residents who have a driver’s license or non-driver’s identification card can access Arizona’s online registration system.  A person who navigates to the EZ Voter Registration page on the MVD’s Service Arizona site first chooses a language (English or Spanish), proceeds to an introductory page that explains the online process, and begins.

The first page that opens requires her to affirm her eligibility to register. On the following page she enters her name, date of birth, and driver’s license or state identification card number.  Alternately, she may supply her name, date of birth, eye color, address, and Social Security number.  The online system attempts to authenticate this information in real time by searching the MVD database for a record that exactly matches it.  If it finds a matching record, the system searches it to confirm that the individual 1) is old enough to register; 2) has a digitized signature on file; and 3) has a license type indicating she provided proof of citizenship when obtaining it.

If the online system finds a valid match, the user continues to a page that asks if she would like to update the residential address she has on file with the MVD, and which will be attached to her online registration.  She may also provide or update a separate mailing address.  The user then enters her remaining registration information, and may also choose to fill in optional fields regarding her contact information and registration history, or to indicate a name change.  She then reviews her information, submits it, and receives an electronic receipt.

In the past, Arizona has considered the following VRM-related legislation:

• Election Day Registration. A bill was introduced in the 2011 session of the Arizona State Legislature would allow eligible citizens to register to vote on Election Day at their precinct during state, county, and federal elections. (H.B. 2253)