The exciting 2008 presidential primary season has ushered millions of new voices into the political process, but millions more remain silenced. Low-income, minority and youth voters still face disproportionately daunting challenges to their ability to mark their preferences at the polls. In all but a handful of states, archaic voter registration policies entangle potential voters in a confusing web of red tape, ultimately excluding them from the democratic process. An important step to address this problem is passage of Election Day Voter Registration.
In a nation that admires democracy so religiously, why is the fundamental right to vote so rarely held sacred? Other countries use a common-sense approach where an individual is automatically recognized as a voter at the age of 18 or after gaining citizenship. In the United States, your right to vote could simply be tied to your Social Security number. Instead, Connecticut and 40 other states use an obsolete system of voter registration developed by and for party machines, designed to enable them with significant influence over the voting patterns of their memberships.
Last Tuesday, we saw at Wesleyan the impact of voter registration deadlines on students’ ability to vote. In the week leading up to the Connecticut primary, the non-partisan group Democracy Matters partnered with other political groups on campus to register several hundred students to vote in Connecticut. But dozens more students were unaware of the voter registration drive, and “got lost in the paperwork and confusing deadlines surrounding voter registration,” according to Áine McCarthy ’10 in last Friday’s Argus [“Students help sway primary for Obama” by Hilary Moss]. Indeed, Wesleyan students living in Connecticut had to contend with three confusing deadlines—one on Jan. 29, one on Jan. 31, and one on Feb. 4—all of which were poorly advertised and poorly explained by the state of Connecticut. Several other students reported being turned away at the polls because they were not aware that they had to change their party affiliation to participate in Connecticut’s closed primaries. Even worse, some students who opted to request absentee ballots from other states in order to maneuver around Connecticut’s flawed voter registration system failed to receive their ballots on time—these students lost their right to vote because of bureaucratic and archaic rules.
There is a simple solution to these problems: Election Day Voter Registration. It’s as easy as it sounds. There are no deadlines, you just show up to the polls with valid ID and proof of residence. Students are often too busy with work and activities to worry about registering before a certain deadline, even if they passionately desire to vote. With Election Day Voter Registration, voting requires no work or planning, just your presence at the polls.
Thanks to Election Day Voter Registration, millions of new voters have entered a system that previously had rules designed to systematically disenfranchise certain groups. In the nine states that passed Election Day Voter Registration legislation, voter turnout is up by a whopping 12 percent on average. Meanwhile, the states that allowed same-day registration in their 2008 primary elections have all witnessed soaring levels of youth turnout. In Iowa, which passed same-day registration legislation not long before its caucuses, voters ages 17 to 29 comprised 22 percent of the electorate—drawing dead even with the traditionally dominant 65+ demographic. But the contrast with Connecticut is shocking: here, voters ages 18 to 29 made up only 10 percent of the electorate, no doubt turned away by the state’s labyrinthine registration requirements.
The answer is clear: Starting right here in Connecticut, we must press states all across the nation to pass legislation enabling Election Day Voter Registration. Undoubtedly, we must tear down all barriers to the ability of eligible citizens to exercise their fundamental right to vote. To that end, Democracy Matters urges all Wesleyan students to rally behind the cause of Election Day Voter Registration. This is only the first of many issues that we will fight for—we’ve already met with Connecticut leaders up in Hartford, attended a summit on fair elections in Albany and are planning a trip to Washington, D.C. to lobby for this and other issues. Get involved, get your voice heard and make a difference. Join Democracy Matters. Thursdays at 6 p.m. in the University Organizing Center (162 Church St., behind Beta).
Leave a Reply