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CPs to Solve Democracy Automatic Voter Registration CP
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CPs to Solve DemocracyAutomatic Voter Registration CP1NC — Automatic Voter Registration CPUnited States federal government should establish Automatic Voter Registration for elections in the United States.Voter Registration makes it easier to be politically activeBrennan Center for Justice 17 The Brennan Center for Justice is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on the fundamental issues of democracy and justice under the New York School of Law. (“Automatic Voter Registration”, Brenner center for Justice, https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/automatic-voter-registration, 6/23, accessed 714/17, EVH) Eight states and the District of Columbia have already approved automatic voter registration, and 32 states have introduced automatic registration proposals this year. June 23, 2017 Automatic voter registration, a new reform that will modernize voter registration and dramatically increase registration rates, is gaining momentum around the country. Eight states and the District of Columbia have already approved the policy, and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is expected to sign an automatic registration bill that the legislature passed in May. So far in 2017, 32 states have introduced legislation to implement or expand automatic registration (and one more state has an AVR bill that carried over from 2016). A full breakdown of these bills, as well as those introduced in 2015 and 2016, is available below. Automatic voter registration makes two transformative, yet simple, changes to voter registration: Eligible citizens who interact with government agencies are registered to vote unless they decline, and agencies transfer voter registration information electronically to election officials. These two changes create a seamless process that is more convenient and less error-prone for both voters and government officials. This policy boosts registration rates, cleans up the rolls, makes voting more convenient, and reduces the potential for voter fraud, all while lowering costs. In March 2015, Oregon became the first to pass a breakthrough law to automatically register eligible citizens who have driver’s licenses (except those who decline). The state has already seen significant registration increases since implementing the policy in January 2016. California — with its estimated 6.6 million eligible but unregistered voters — was the next to pass automatic registration, adopting the policy in October 2015. 2016 was the biggest year yet for automatic registration. The West Virginia and Vermont legislatures passed automatic voter registration with strong bipartisan support, and both bills were promptly signed into law in April. Connecticut approved automatic registration administratively in May, and Georgia began implementing an administratively-approved policy in the fall. On November 1, the District of Columbia Council unanimously passed automatic registration legislation that the mayor signed the following month. The Illinois and New Jersey legislatures also approved automatic registration in 2016, but both bills were vetoed. On November 8, 2016, Alaska voters directly approved the policy. Alaskans passed a ballot measure to institute automatic voter registration through the state’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), a sum paid by the state to all eligible residents. Once the new system is fully implemented, eligible citizens will be automatically registered to vote or have their existing registration information updated when they complete their annual PFD application, unless they decline. Momentum for automatic registration has carried into 2017. Colorado approved the policy administratively and began implementing it at DMV offices this year. The Nevada legislature passed an automatic voter registration bill in March, but Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed it. Since the bill was originally introduced in the legislature through a citizen petition, it will now appear on the state’s 2018 general election ballot. In May, the Illinois legislature unanimously passed an automatic registration bill that would bring the reform to a broad range of state agencies, in addition to the DMV. Gov. Bruce Rauner — who vetoed a similar bill last year — has indicated he will sign it. Automatic registration has also garnered attention at the national level. In February 2016, outgoing President Barack Obama called on legislators to “mak[e] automatic voter registration the new norm across America.” In June 2017, Rep. Robert Brady introduced a bill to automatically register eligible citizens to vote in federal elections when they interact with numerous state and federal government agencies; Sens. Patrick Leahy, Amy Klobuchar, and Dick Durbin cosponsored identical legislation in the Senate. This group of lawmakers had also introduced an automatic registration bill during the previous legislative session. For more information on why states should implement automatic voter registration, see The Case for Automatic Voter Registration. This report urges adoption of the four components of a permanent registration system, with automatic registration as its central plank. For in-depth answers describing how states can use existing technology to implement automatic registration, see Automatic and Permanent Voter Registration: How it Works. 2017 Automatic Voter Registration Bills Introduced Extend: “AVR Solves”Voter Registration allows more than 50 million Americans to vote by increasing incentives while saving the US moneyWeiser 16 Wendy Weiser directs the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a non-partisan think tank and public interest law center that focuses on issues of democracy and justice. She has authored a number of studies and reports on voter registration, advised state and federal policymakers, and testified before Congress and other legislative bodies on the subject. (“Automatic Voter Registration Boosts Political Participation”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 1/28, accessed 7/17/17, EVH) The United States is one of the few democracies that place the burden of registering to vote on individual citizens. Not coincidentally, the United States also has one of the lowest voter registration rates. In all but two of the 20 countries and provinces studied by the Brennan Center in 2009, registration rates exceeded 90 percent of eligible voters, as compared to less than 70 percent in the United States. Today, more than 50 million eligible Americans are not registered to vote. Even those who are registered risk being blocked from voting because of problems with the registration system. The Pew Center on the States found that 1 in 8 registrations nationwide are outdated, invalid, or inaccurate. Voters whose registrations are not found because of errors are often turned away from the polls or do not have their ballots counted. The resulting confusion can lead to long lines at the polls, as the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration found in its 2014 report, and additional lost votes by people who choose not to wait. New Paradigm: Automatic Registration But now the United States may be on the verge of a new paradigm for registering voters that has the potential to dramatically increase registration rates and improve the accuracy of the rolls. This year, for the first time, two states—Oregon and California—have passed laws to automatically register citizens to vote at motor vehicle offices (DMV). Lawmakers in 18 other states and the District of Columbia have proposed legislation along the same lines. The concept is simple: the government will register every eligible citizen who interacts with a DMV office unless they affirmatively decline registration. This reform, made possible by improvements in database technology, entails two consequential changes: first, systems must be upgraded so that voter information can be transferred electronically (and securely) from DMVs to election officials without using separate paper forms or snail mail; and second, the default must change from “opt in,” in which voters are kept off the rolls unless they take action to sign up, to “opt out,” in which all eligible citizens are added to the rolls unless they say no. Because these automatic registration reforms are not yet in place, it will be a while before we can measure their influence on voter registration and participation rates. But there is already powerful evidence that it will have a positive impact on both. Increased Registration Rates First, the evidence from abroad suggests we can expect registration rates to surge. Of the 16 countries and four Canadian provinces we examined in 2009, the only two that had registration rates below 90 percent—South Africa (77 percent) and the Bahamas (75 percent)—were also the only two where, like the United States, citizens were responsible for registering themselves. In all others, the government bore responsibility for registering voters—and achieved far better results. Similarly strong results can be achieved in the United States. Oregon officials compared the state’s DMV and voter lists earlier this year and found up to 400,000 eligible but unregistered citizens who can be automatically registered under the state’s new law—which would cut the state’s unregistered population in half. In California, officials estimate there are 6.6 million eligible but unregistered citizens. Even more modest state reforms to modernize voter registration have had impressive results in driving up registration numbers. Recently, half the US states have moved away from paper-based registration at DMVs and now electronically transmit voter information from DMVs to election offices—the first step toward automatic registration. In two extensive studies of these reforms, we found that nearly every state that adopted electronic registration saw significant increases in registrations at DMVs. For example, after Kansas, Rhode Island, and Washington implemented this, their registration rates at DMVs nearly doubled. South Dakota’s increased nearly seven-fold. These increases occurred in opt-in systems. The move to an opt-out system will further improve registration rates. Studies show that across a wide range of areas, setting a default choice to opt out has a significant impact on the likelihood that an individual will choose an outcome. For example, one study found participants chose to be organ donors 82 percent of the time when faced with a question framed as an opt out, compared with 42 percent for those faced with an opt-in question. Expanding automatic registration to public service agencies could also make a big difference. Better Turnout While voter registration does not automatically translate into voter participation, there is strong reason to believe that the sizable increases in registration and improved voter roll accuracy resulting from automatic registration will lead to measurable improvements in voter turnout. In the first instance, automatic registration will expand the vote to the millions of Americans who are kept from voting each election because of registration barriers. According to a study by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2008 approximately 3 million Americans tried to vote but could not because of registration problems, and millions more were thwarted by registration deadlines and related issues. A study of in-person voters in 2012 similarly found that millions experienced registration problems at the polls. With more complete and accurate rolls, those millions would have voted. Automatic registration will also help millions of Americans who change residences. One in nine Americans moves each year, and many fall off the voting rolls. In 2002, a Harvard University political scientist found a full one-third of unregistered Americans had previously been signed up but moved without re-registering. Many did, however, update their driver’s licenses—a step that would cause their registrations to be updated under automatic registration. Other voter registration reforms have resulted in significant increases in turnout. One study found that simply making registration portable can boost turnout by more than 2 percent. And many academic studies show that allowing citizens to register at their polling place on election day increases turnout by a significant margin—typically 5 to 7 percent. Automatic registration has the potential to perform even better because it does more than just remove a barrier to voting. By putting citizens on the rolls where they can be contacted, it exposes them to incentivizing influences to participate. Registered voters receive more direct contact from campaigns and other groups; a wide swath of research shows that if you are contacted in advance of an election, you are more likely to vote. In short, automatic registration is a positive step toward engaging a larger portion of the electorate in the democratic process. It can turn the registration system from a barrier to voting to a stronger tool to encourage participation. And it can do so while improving list accuracy, reducing the potential for fraud, and saving states money. Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 0.72 Mb. Share with your friends:
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