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Voting Rights & Elections

Wisconsin Court Blocks Voter ID Law

By Keesha Gaskins – 03/06/12

Today, the Dane County Circuit Court issued a temporary injunction preventing enforcement of Wisconsin’s voter ID law until the scheduled trial on April 16 (Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP et al., v. Scott Walker).  This decision is based on Wisconsin’s state constitution, not federal law.

In its findings, the trial court distinguished the case from the Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Marion County, which upheld Indiana’s strict “no-photo, no-vote” ID law in 2008. The Dane County court made three important distinctions from that case. First, Wisconsin’s constitution expressly guarantees a right to vote. Second, Wisconsin’s law is far more strict than Indiana’s law challenged in the Crawford case. And third, the Crawford decision was based on a flawed factual record, not present in the current Wisconsin case.   

Perhaps most importantly, the trial court found that this case should be subject to strict scrutiny, meaning the government must justify why the law is needed, not simply state a general rationale for its existence. Trial is set for April 16th, and we may see an appeal of this decision, but for now, this is very good news — particularly for the residents of Milwaukee who have a mayoral election on April 3rd. 

Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Voter ID

New Efforts to Improve Ballot Design

By Lawrence Norden – 03/05/12

Crossposted at ReformNY.

We’re always interested in learning about new projects to improve elections, so we thought we would share an exciting new proposal to make it easier for election administrators to improve ballot design. By applying the basic design principles to ballots, Field Guidelines to Ensure Voter Intent proposes to publish a series of books with guidelines and examples of common ballot design problems to help election officials employ ballot design techniques that help ensure that every vote is cast as voters intend.

As the Brennan Center found in Better Ballots, common problems due to poor ballot design and instructions have led to the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of voters. As recently as last week, we were reminded of the importance ballot design can play in a close election. The results of a hotly contested City Council race in upstate New York were overturned after a hand recount found that a voting machine had not properly counted two ballots. One of the two ballots in question was improperly marked; a  voter had circled an oval instead of filling it in. Although the machine was unable to detect the vote, the voter’s intent was clear to election officials as they reviewed the ballot. The margin of victory in that election was a single vote. Mistakes like these can often be prevented through clearer instructions on how to properly mark a ballot.

In this upcoming election season, we hope to see more important tools like these that will help election officials prepare for elections.

Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Ballot & Election Material Design

New Voting Newsletter

By Erik Opsal – 02/29/12

Dear Friend,

Last fall, the Brennan Center released a comprehensive study detailing the wave of restrictive laws that could make it harder for up to 5 million Americans to vote. As we approach the 2012 elections, the Brennan Center will continue to track these laws — on our website and in your inbox.

Today, we bring you our first newsletter tracking voting developments. If you would like to receive these updates going forward, please sign up here. Join us as we fight to protect the right to vote for millions of Americans.

Sincerely,

Michael Waldman
Executive Director

Latest Developments

Voter Registration for the 21st Century

Are dead people voting? A South Carolina commissionfound no evidence of deceased citizens casting ballots in recent elections.

“The findings are not a big surprise because what often appears to be ‘dead’ people voting usually involves something else — such as clerical errors — once officials investigate,” NPR reports.

The Palmetto State report comes on the heels of a Pew Center on the States study showing that 1 in 8 voter registration records are flawed and that at least one in four eligible Americans are not registered to vote.

“What all of these alarming numbers show is that our nation’s ramshackle voter registration system is broken and out of date,” said the Brennan Center’s Lawrence Norden. “We need to modernize it. This common sense reform would cost less, add millions to the rolls, and curb any possibility of fraud.”

Read the Brennan Center’s proposal to modernize our voter registration system, our comprehensive study on new voting restrictions that could make it harder for 5 million people to vote, and our report on voter registration around the world. (Image source: Pew Center on the States)

Federal Judge to Review Florida Election Law

Tomorrow, a federal judge in Tallahassee will hold a hearing on Florida’s new election law, which curbs community-based registration drives. The judge will decide whether to freeze the law while the court considers Plaintiffs' claims that it violates the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes. The Brennan Center and others sued on behalf of the League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote, and the Florida PIRG. Read more at The New York Times.

Update in the States

Colorado – A proposed voter ID bill advanced in the state House. Unlike last year, legislators are not pushing a proof of citizenship requirement. Secretary of State Gessler said “he felt he could address the issue outside the halls of the capitol with means available to him through his office.” Also, a group of voters filed a lawsuit claiming the state’s election practices are unconstitutional.

Florida – U.S. Senate Democrats held a hearing on the state’s controversial election law. Read the Brennan Center’s written testimony and other testimony here. Read Jonathan Brater’s op-ed urging Florida to modernize its voter registration system. See more coverage here, here, and here.

Georgia – A state Senator introduced a bill to expand ballot access “through online registration and same day voter registration.”

Illinois – The state Senate introduced a voter ID bill.

Indiana – Voting fraud, found at last! Secretary of State Charlie White was sentenced to one year on home detention after being convicted of six felony charges, including voter fraud. Read more here and here.

Iowa – A proposed voter ID bill received a “tepid response” from legislative leaders. Read an editorial opposing the law.

Kentucky – The state House moved one step closer to restoring voting rights to individuals with past criminal convictions. Editorial boards have pushed for the change. See the Brennan Center’s work on this issue.

Kansas – Secretary of State Kris Kobach may move up the start date of citizenship requirements for voter registration. Opponents are considering a legal challenge to the state’s voter ID law.

Maine – A voter ID bill was tabled in Maine. Read more here and here.

Maryland – To save money and boost turnout, state Del. Jon Cardin urged election officials to conduct special elections by mail. A House committee is also considering a voter ID bill, which has been rejected in past years.

Michigan – The state Senate passed a package of restrictive voting bills, which would require a photo ID to register to vote. The bill would also require training for groups engaging in voter registration drives.

Minnesota – The state is considering a proposed constitutional amendment to require photo ID to vote, which passed out of a key Senate committee. Opponents of the law say one ad in support of the bill is racist. Read more here and here. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie proposed electronic poll books as a possible bipartisan solution. Read more here.

Missouri – A voter ID measure was approved by the state House. Read more here.

Nebraska – A coalition of groups protested a voter ID bill, saying it would “disenfranchise some voters — particularly the poor, the elderly and minorities.” Watch an investigation into who is behind the state's law. Read more here and here.

New Hampshire – The state Senate will vote on a voter ID bill next week. The state House also passed a bill “that would effectively prohibit out-of-state students from voting in New Hampshire unless they maintained legal residence in the state.”

New Mexico – As it has in years past, a House committee voted down a voter ID bill.

North Carolina –The state legislature is considering overriding the governor’s veto of a photo ID bill. A bipartisan group of election officials asked the state to release $4 million in election assistance funds under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Ohio – Secretary of State Jon Husted urged lawmakers to repeal last year’s voting law and revisit election reform after the election. A majority of voters support the repeal. The law will be on the ballot as a referendum in November. Read more here and here.

Pennsylvania – The state Senate is considering a voter ID bill. Read Keesha Gaskins’ op-ed opposing the bill.

Rhode Island – State officials are providing free photo IDs in advance of April’s election.

South Carolina – The Attorney General filed a lawsuit after the DOJ blocked its voter ID law. Read more here. Lawmakers also introduced a bill making it harder for voter registration groups to conduct registration drives. And after initially claiming hundreds of dead voters cast ballots in recent elections, state officials found no evidence supporting the claim.

South Dakota – A Native American tribe sued over early voting.

Tennessee – Disability advocates urged repeal of the state’s voter ID law, saying it is “unfair to the disabled because it raises hurdles to their casting their ballots in person.” In response to the law, dozens of ministers are launching a drive to make sure all eligible voters are able to cast a ballot. Read more here.

Texas – Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit asking the D.C. District Court to allow the state to implement its voter ID law, which the Department of Justice is currently reviewing. A voting rights group also filed a lawsuit, claiming the state’s restrictive voting practices have suppressed the voter rolls. 

Virginia – The state Senate passed a voter ID bill, which heads back to the House for approval. Read the Washington Post editorial and Virginian-Pilot column opposing the measure. The Commonwealth Institute reported that one version of the bill would cost the state millions of dollars to implement.

Wisconsin – A state judge will rule on March 9 on whether a lawsuit challenging the state’s voter ID law can proceed. Church leaders got the word out about the new ID law, which first went into effect for the February 21 primary. And the state Senate passed a bill that could make it harder for high school students to register to vote.

See our comprehensive update of voting law changes through 2011.

National Opinion

• USA Today detailed the spread of voter ID laws — and the lawsuits challenging the laws. MSNBC also wrote an in-depth rundown. See the Brennan Center’s research on how 11 percent of Americans don’t have government-issued ID.
• David Firestone of The New York Times asked: “Will Voter ID Laws Disenfranchise Democratic Voters?”
• The Los Angeles Times editorialized in favor of modernizing our voter registration system.
• In response to Pew’s voter registration report, Michael Scherer at Time noted, “The United States of America Still Doesn’t Know How To Vote.”
• New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal wrote about the Minnesota ACLU’s offer to provide a $1,000 reward for providing an example of voter impersonation in the last 10 years. Read the Brennan Center’s study, The Truth About Voter Fraud.
• Professor Alexander Keyssar wrote on “The Strange Career of Voter Suppression.”
• The New York Times editorialized on voting and racial history, focusing on the attacks on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
• In the Boston Review, the Brennan Center’s Jonathan Brater wrote about why we still need Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act
• The Washington Post called for voting rights to be restored to individuals with past criminal convictions. Also see op-ed’s from former Nixon Special Counsel Charles Colson and Rev. H. David Schuringa.

New Data and Research

Voter ID in Virginia: An Expensive Mistake

“While requirements for voter ID may sound reasonable at first glance, the bills being pushed in Virginia go beyond any reasonable requirements and are far too restrictive and expensive to deserve support.” Read more.

Other News

• The president of Chile signed a law to automatically register citizens to vote. But the United States — where up to 35 percent of citizens who are eligible to vote are not registered — does not have this policy in place.
• Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) introduced the Democracy Restoration Act, a bill to restore voting rights in federal elections to individuals with criminal convictions. Check out this piece in The Hill from the Brennan Center's Nicole Austin-Hillery and Nic Riley. Read more about the Democracy Restoration Act here.
• The electionlineWeekly reports on the Overseas Vote Foundation’s Sixth Annual Summit “where participants highlighted progress made and noted the challenges that still remain in ensuring that military and overseas voters can successfully cast their absentee ballots.”

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Tags: Newsletter, Voting Rights & Elections

An Unjustified Toll on Student Registration In Wisconsin

By Elisabeth Genn – 02/23/12

With the state Senate’s passage of a bill that would eliminate high schools as designated voter registration sites, Wisconsin has unfortunately joined the ranks of states speeding ahead with measures that will make it more difficult for students to register and vote. The state Senate passed the bill on February 21, the same day that Wisconsin residents went to the polls for the first time with the state’s new photo ID law in place.

Wisconsin law currently requires that each high school work with local election officials to appoint at least one special registration deputy to help register eligible students and staff at that school. In addition, under current law, the principal of any private high school or any tribal school that operates high school grades in Wisconsin may request to do the same.

The opportunity for eligible students to register at their schools is particularly important in Wisconsin because the state does not offer pre-registration to students before they turn 18. By seeking to eliminate voter registration at high schools, the Wisconsin legislature is putting up additional hurdles to the registration of a student population that is already likely to be underserved. Without a visible voter registration presence in their schools, Wisconsin students might get a driver's license at the age of 16, but not be offered the opportunity to register to vote until renewing their licenses four years later. In the interim, countless students could miss their opportunity to cast a ballot. Whatever may be the perceived administrative benefits of attempting to streamline voter registration in Wisconsin, they cannot outweigh the cost to be borne by students. 

At a time of understandable skepticism on the part of young people about whether their voices can be heard over the roar of corporate money turned speech, we should be sending students the message that their participation in our democracy is as critical as ever. High schools are eminently appropriate institutions to teach students about the importance of civic participation.  States should facilitate efforts by high schools to serve that important function rather than gut them in the service of administrative expediency.

Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Student Voting

Latest News from the Brennan Center

By Erik Opsal – 02/16/12

Look for updates on the latest Brennan Center work, publications, events, and more. Spread the word and encourage your friends to sign up.

New Study Shows Need for Modern Voting System

The Pew Center on the States released a report Tuesday showing that 1 in 8 voter registration records are flawed. "This report proves that our nation’s ramshackle voter registration system does not work for 21st century America," said Wendy Weiser. "It's a mess. It's expensive. There isn't central control over the process," Lawrence Norden told USA Today.

Read the Brennan Center’s proposal to modernize our voter registration system, which would add 65 million eligible Americans to the rolls. Also read our comprehensive study on new voting restrictions that could make it harder for 5 million people to vote and our report on voter registration around the world. Read more at The New York Times and Associated Press.

Business, Civic Leaders Urge Public Financing in New York

A new bipartisan group called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday to fulfill his promise to clean up Albany and overhaul the state’s campaign finance laws. Called New York Leadership for Accountable Government (NY LEAD) and led by Hudson River Ventures’ Sean Eldridge, former Congressman Scott Murphy, and other prominent business and civic leaders, the group urged public financing as the key to restore fairness and accountability to the Empire State’s political process. Read the New York Times story and editorial. See video of the press conference. Read the Brennan Center's report on New York City's successful public financing system, a model for the state.

Virginia Presses Restrictive Voting Measure

With Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) breaking a tie vote, the Virginia state senate passed a voter ID bill, continuing the wave of restrictive voting laws that will make it harder for up to 5 million people to vote in 2012. Now the Senate bill must be reconciled with the House version. The Brennan Center’s Keesha Gaskins spoke to the Virginian-Pilot about the bill. Read the our comprehensive study, Voting Law Changes in 2012, which details how new voting restrictions fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters.

A $26 Billion Mortgage Settlement, But for Whom?

Government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks reached a settlement that could assist nearly two million homeowners harmed by the real estate implosion. Yet, four million Americans have been foreclosed upon since 2007. Behind all the numbers are people. To hear their stories — and why they need legal help — watch the Brennan Center’s multimedia series, Fighting Foreclosure: Why Legal Assistance Matters. Read Neeta Pal’s interviews with advocates aiding homeowners. And watch Mark Ladov discuss the settlement on Capital Tonight.

House Democrats Revive Transparency Bill

House Democrats introduced a slimmed-down version of the DISCLOSE Act, which would increase transparency in elections by requiring outside groups to disclose their donors and list them in campaign ads. “Already in the 2012 cycle, corporations and individuals have donated unlimited sums to candidate-specific Super PACs, which have flooded the airwaves,” reads a letter urging members of Congress to support the bill. “The DISCLOSE 2012 Act is a crucial step to shine disinfecting sunlight on this secretive spending.” Read more at The Hill’s Congress Blog.

Ideas on Democracy, Justice, and the Rule of Law

Pew Report Shows Need for Modern Voting System – Wendy Weiser & Lianna Reagan

• A new study reveals our deeply flawed election administration system — and the urgent need to bring it up to date.

The Real Fraud Behind Photo ID – Lee Rowland

• Claims of widespread voter fraud collapse under close inspection.

Chile’s Voter Registration System: A Model for the U.S. – Lianna Reagan

• Chile modernized its voter registration system. But a first-rate democracy like the U.S. still lags behind.

Obama’s Super PAC Flip-Flop – Adam Skaggs

• The president's use of Super PAC support distracts us from the real questions about today’s campaign finance environment.

Iguanas and the Rule of Law at Guantánamo – Liza Goitein

• I traveled to the prison recently to observe the hearing of accused U.S.S. Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Brown and Warren Unilaterally Disarm Super PACs – Jonathan Backer

• Many candidates have piously condemned Super PAC spending, but two Massachusetts candidates backed up their talk with action.

Money and Politics in New York – Reform NY

• A roundup with the latest news highlighting the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics — and the need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform.

What We’re Reading

• See what the Brennan Center’s reading in this daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security. Includes stories the mortgage settlement, voter ID in Texas and South Carolina, and the DISCLOSE Act.

Read more blogs here.

• Feb. 17 – Nic Riley participates in a voting rights panel at the New Organizing Institute in Washington, D.C.
• Feb. 17 – Nicole Austin-Hillery speaks about the evolution of voting rights in America at a Congressional Black Caucus panel in Washington, D.C. Reps. Steny Hoyer, John Conyers, John Lewis, and Marcia Fudge will be in attendance.
• Feb. 29 – The Brennan Center hosts a roundtable discussion on the state of the foreclosure crisis in New York. Representatives from NYU’s Furman Center, the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, and New York legal services groups will speak on the panel.
• March 8 – The Brennan Center hosts former Inspector General Glenn Fine, who will discuss his experience overseeing the FBI and lessons learned about oversight of intelligence operations.

• Lawrence Norden spoke to USA Today and the Associated Press about a new report from the Pew Center on the States, which shows that 1 in 8 voter registration records are flawed. Read more at The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, International Business Times, and Time.
• South Carolina is trying to pass yet another restrictive voting bill. Writing in the Boston Review, Jonathan Brater said, “If the United States awarded medals for voter suppression, South Carolina would compete for the gold.”
• The New York Times covered the launch of New York Leadership for Accountable Government. Also read the Times editorial urging Gov. Cuomo to enact campaign reform.
• Michael Waldman appeared on Current TV’s The War Room with Jennifer Granholm to discuss restrictive voting laws. Also see him discuss the presidential race on CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett.
• Mark Ladov appeared on Capital Tonight to discuss the recent mortgage settlement that will help millions of homeowners.
• Super PACs dominated the news these past few weeks. Read our experts’ comments in the Washington Post and The American Prospect.
• Read Adam Skaggs’ take on Super PAC disclosure in Salon and his views on Citizens United in Reuters. Also read his op-ed urging passage of the DISCLOSE Act.
• Nicole Austin-Hillery wrote an op-ed for Roll Call on why Congress should make more efforts toward cooperation.
• Rep. Charles Gonzalez cited our voting research in an op-ed on voter ID.
• At the Huffington Post, Neeta Pal conducted two Q&As with advocates aiding homeowners going through foreclosure.
• NPR detailed why millions of Americans don’t have government ID.
• The Virginia Senate passed a voter ID bill. Keesha Gaskins spoke to a Virginian-Pilot columnist about the bill. Also read the Washington Post’s editorial opposing the measure.
• Gaskins also spoke to the Minneapolis Star Tribune about Minnesota’s proposed voter ID measures.
• Other experts discussing voting laws: Lawrence Norden on The Takeaway and Wisconsin Public Radio, Mimi Marziani on CBC’s The Current, and Keesha Gaskins on Al Jazeera.
• The Brennan Center continued its call for an inspector general for the NYPD.
• Adam Skaggs spoke on a panel on judicial ethics rules at the ABA convention in New Orleans.
• Keesha Gaskins explained redistricting to PBS Newshour’s Extra, an online program put together by students.

Stay Connected

• Subscribe to other Brennan Center Newsletters
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Tags: Newsletter, Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, NY Reform, Voting Rights & Elections, Justice, Civil Justice

Pew Study Shows Need for Modern Voting System

By Wendy Weiser & Lianna Reagan – 02/14/12

Today, the Pew Center on the States released a report detailing some of the serious flaws in our voter registration systems, the lynchpin of election administration. Their study reaffirms what election administrators and voter advocates have known for a long time — that the voter rolls are filled with errors, and an unconscionable percentage (almost a quarter, according to Pew) of American citizens who are eligible to vote are not registered.

The flaws identified in the Pew study are the result of an outdated, paper- based voter registration system that is not only inefficient and costly, but prone to inaccuracy. Worse, the clunky system leaves off millions of eligible voters or contains errors in their records that could prevent them from voting effectively. The question is no longer whether we should upgrade the system, but how we should do so. Recent technological innovations point the way to the solution: modernizing the system.

The Brennan Center’s voter registration modernization proposal would address all the problems identified by the Pew study. Our plan includes automated registration of eligible voters at other governmental agencies (automatically transferring the records of consenting citizens to election authorities), online registration and access (enabling citizens to register to vote or check and update their registration online), permanent state registration (ensuring that a voter’s registration record moves with her when she moves within a state), and an Election Day failsafe to correct any errors and omissions. Experiences in the states demonstrate that our plan increases accuracy and registration rates, saves money, and minimizes the potential for fraud. The Brennan Center has developed a model state bill, and numerous states have already adopted components of voter registration modernization.

Voter registration is the first step to voting, the most important civic duty that Americans have.  It is simply unacceptable for our modern democracy to rely on an incomplete, outdated, inaccurate, and expensive voter registration system like that used in many parts of the country. We should be a model of election administration, not lagging behind other democracies.

To be clear, Pew’s findings do not justify the restrictive voting policies we see being passed in some states. It is not easy or strategic to impersonate someone at the polls. Rather than erecting barriers between eligible American citizens and their right to vote, we should be opening pathways to a modern voting system.

Voter registration modernization is essential to help bring election administration into the 21st century, and states should take advantage of all opportunities, including the Pew technology, to move closer to voter registration modernization.

Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Voter Registration Modernization

The Real Fraud Behind Photo ID

By Lee Rowland – 02/13/12

Photo ID supporters routinely cry “fraud” as the reason for supporting new restrictions on access to the ballot. But the real fraud is in the repeated use of inaccurate, or just plain manufactured, claims about voter fraud that just aren’t happening. The reality? Voter fraud is as likely to happen as getting struck by lightning. But if you listen to photo ID supporters, you’d think every rain drop represents a stolen vote.

Take last week’s quiet unearthing of fraud in South Carolina, where ID supporters cited evidence that hundreds of dead voters had voted in the state’s elections as a critical argument for passing a photo ID law in 2011. The South Carolina Election Commission announced it had painstakingly reviewed a quarter of the supposed “dead voters.” Sure enough, they found fraud — just not the type you’d expect. The commission discovered there is in fact no evidence that any fraudulent votes were cast. Yet, sadly, these nonexistent dead voters were Exhibit A used to dupe voters into passing a law that risks disenfranchising eligible voters.

Then there’s James O’Keefe, a vocal photo ID supporter, who has been in the news twice recently for “uncovering” fraud in New Hampshire and Minnesota. O’Keefe released video footage of New Hampshire polling locations during the Republican primary, purporting to show him and others posing as deceased voters and receiving ballots. The problem for O’Keefe is that his video itself might be evidence of fraud: committed by O’Keefe and his cronies. In fact, the New Hampshire State Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into O’Keefe’s conduct for a handful of possible criminal violations, including voter impersonation fraud.

The investigation hasn’t deterred him — he resurfaced again in Minnesota last week. The day before the Minnesota Republican caucus, O’Keefe registered several fake individuals to vote in order to receive absentee ballots. His video was leaked to drum up outrage about possible voter fraud. But there’s simply no evidence that — before O’Keefe rolled into town, anyway — Minnesota has any voter fraud problem whatsoever.

What do Minnesota and New Hampshire have in common? Unsurprisingly, there are photo ID bills before both states’ legislatures in 2012. Activists like O’Keefe will point to these videos as proof that our election systems lack integrity. But folks should flat-out refuse to take marching orders on election “integrity” from a gentleman who clearly doesn’t have much.

Voters in those states should refuse to be taken in by these fraudulent claims of voter fraud. There were no dead voters in South Carolina, and there aren’t in Minnesota or New Hampshire either. Instead, there’s just O’Keefe and others like him — who will do anything it takes to provide “proof” that photo ID laws are necessary. There’s zero percent truth to any of these highly-publicized claims. But they unfortunately can lead to passage of laws requiring a photo ID that 11 percent of eligible American voters do not have.

When you scratch beneath the surface, you see that O’Keefe and others who make a living crying “fraud!” resort to manufacturing evidence of voter fraud that doesn’t otherwise exist — and potentially commit fraud in the process. If those who support photo ID are willing to commit fraud in the name of preventing it, maybe it’s time to stop taking these claims at face value. Like fool's gold, the claims of widespread voter fraud are fast, cheap, and shiny — and collapse under close inspection.

Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Allegations of Voter Fraud, Voter ID

Looking Around the World for Inspiration: Voter Registration

By Lianna Reagan – 02/09/12

This week, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera signed a bill into law that automatically registers its citizens to vote, which is expected to add 4.5 million people to Chile’s registration rolls. In doing so, the country joins many other democratic nations, including Australia, Canada, and France, that already have some form of automatic registration in place.

Unfortunately, the United States, where 35 percent of citizens — about 73.5 million — who are eligible to vote are not registered, does not have this policy in place.  With such low registration rates, it is hard to imagine that in the last few years multiple laws have been approved across the country to restrict the ability of people to vote.  In many states, there are even new burdens being placed specifically on the ability of community groups to register voters. One of the most onerous laws that passed was in Florida, and those restrictions are so severe that the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote had to suspend their voter registration drives.

Voting is not only a right, but a fundamental part of building an engaged citizenry and the foundation for civic participation. The Brennan Center advocates for a number of ways to modernize our country’s voter registration process that would be helpful to states to facilitate widespread registration. These provisions of voter registration modernization include automated registration (or automatically registering eligible citizens based on lists from other governmental agencies), online registration and access (being able to register to vote; or check, and edit one’s registration online), and permanent state registration (a voter’s registration record is moved as needed among jurisdictions within the state, but the voter is kept on the voter rolls as long as she resides in the state). All of these measures would effectively and efficiently improve voter registration, and enable more Americans to vote.

In addition to making our democracy more inclusive, voter registration modernization could make voting rolls more clean and accurate. The key is in sharing and comparing information between government agencies while moving away from the antiquated paper-based system on which most states rely. In too many states, a form has to get mailed to the county election office where it is hard-entered into the state voter registration database. This paper based system is not only labor intensive, but also error prone, and can lead to numerous problems in the electoral process. These systems are also incredibly costly at a time when money is particularly tight in the states. Moving to a paperless system can save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. In Maricopa County, Arizona, they saved $450,000 by switching to online registration and partial automation, and in Delaware, they saved $200,000 just on personnel costs. Voter registration modernization has also gained bipartisan support around the country, as it is an area in which both parties can come together in the common goal of efficiency and cost reduction.

By following in the footsteps of many of the world’s developed democracies, Chile took an essential step toward modernizing its voter registration system. As a first-rate democracy the United States should do no less.

Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Voter Registration Drives, Voter Registration Modernization