Oregon 4th State to Offer Online Voter Registration

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 to universal registration. Same day or Election Day registration does more. Pre-registration of 16 an 17 years old is another trend that will make a difference. But it's great step and sends a message that government should do everything possible to make voting accessible to all. For more.

Rhode Island Assembly overrides veto of teen registration bill

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.

D.C. passes same day voter registration

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.

Voting in Germany. And then, voting in the United States.

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 sample ballot from 2005- click to enlarge) directly elects the voter's constituency representative. There are 299 of these representatives directly elected, representing half of the lower house.

The 2nd vote is cast for a "party list" (see the right side of the ballot) and determines the distribution of the remaining 299 seats to each of the various political parties.
An additional quantity of "overhang seats" are allotted in case any party receives more votes through the 1st direct election than it would normally receive through its allotted distribution of seats based on the 2nd party vote.

See the pie chart to the left for the breakdown of seats distributed in Sunday's election.

Interesting tidbit- Germany's government takes a much higher responsibility for registering its citizens to vote than the United States government does.

Germany uses existing civil registries at the municipal level (inclusion on these lists is mandatory) to automatically generate voter lists, according to this report from the Brennan Center. If a German will be 18 by the next election, they are automatically added to this voter list and receive a notification card in the mail.

By contrast, the United States- along with Belize and Burundi- places the burden on citizens to take responsibility for knowing the rules and registering themselves to vote.

Is it any surprise that in 2005, 93% of eligible Germans were registered to vote, while in the United States, 68% of age-eligible citizens were registered to vote in 2006?

Voter turnout is generally excellent in Germany, averaging in the past quarter century at around 80% - though in Sunday's election, a "lackluster campaign" seems to have contributed to a decrease in voter turnout to 71%. However, compare this to US voter turnout, which in 2008's extremely high-profile election amounted to just 62% of eligible voters.

Imagine how US turnout might be affected if we combined the high-profile races of our 2008 election with Germany's near-universal voter registration (not to mention, their Sunday Election Day...).

"Voter Registration Around the World"

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 - "Expanding Democracy: Voter Registration Around the World," Brennan Center 2009.

Nov. 4th Brings Universal Voter Registration to Election Reform Forefront - Memo From George Pillsbury, NVEN

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 is not a barrier as voters can fix a registration problem on Election Day and vote

• 2008 saw many registration problems. On one hand 3rd party nonprofits over zealously turned in duplicate or flawed registrations. On the other, partisan election officials attempted to illegally drop tens of thousands from voter rolls in Colorado, Detroit and other jurisdictions.

Voter registration is necessary to track voters but has no place as a barrier for any eligible citizen to participate in their democracy and vote.

-George Pillsbury, December 2008

George Pillsbury is the Policy and Development Director of the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network

To learn more about Universal Voter Registration, read the Brennan Center's recent overview of Universal Voter Registration.

EAC Chair Endorses Universal Voter Registration

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.

New Report: Universal Voter Registration

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 registration” systems
• Requiring Election Day registration

Read the draft.