If the government has told us that tax day is April 15, it would be unfair for the IRS to start levying late fees on April 12. But that’s comparable to what’s happening in several states this year in regards to voter registration.
This year, as it does in many places, the deadline to register to vote in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Rhode Island falls on the upcoming holiday weekend. Unlike other places, however, election officials in these states have decided only applications postmarked by Saturday, October 8 will be accepted. People who drop their application in the mailbox too late on Saturday for a pick-up, or anytime thereafter, will not be registered to vote in time for the November election.
Standard practice and common sense suggests that citizens should be registered as long as their applications are postmarked by the next post-office business day, which would be Tuesday, Oct. 11. (In fact, Arkansas, Utah, and Washington State recently made changes so that applications postmarked by the 11th would be accepted.) But Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Rhode Island are applying their deadline in a way that means that some well-intentioned people who planned to vote in November won’t be able to do so.
Today, Project Vote sent a letter to election officials in these states, urging them to accept applications postmarked by Tuesday, and give their citizens a full opportunity to participate in the election.
The situation is even worse in states that happen to fall in the path of Hurricane Matthew. Over 2.5 million people in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina have been ordered to evacuate their homes this week. Obviously, the survival and safety of their families is the top priority for these people, but that doesn’t mean they should miss out on the opportunity to vote in November’s election.
The last week of voter registration is a crucial one, when election officials typically see surges in registrations. (In Florida, roughly 50,000 people registered in the five days prior to the deadline in 2012, according to University of Florida professor Daniel A. Smith.)
Yet Governor Rick Scott of Florida said last night that—despite the hurricane—the state has no intention of extending the voter registration deadline, because “everybody has had a lot of time to register.” It was a stunningly callous statement, seemingly indifferent to the fact that people may have planned to register this week, and would have had no idea that they would instead be spending their time doing their best to protect their families and homes, being forced to flee, and then facing destruction and displacement in the historic storm’s aftermath.
South Carolina, recognizing the problem facing its temporarily displaced citizens, has already extended their voter registration deadline, though a further extension would give affected citizens more time to deal with the storm and still register. North Carolina has same-day registration during early voting, so the problem there is not as dire. But thousands of people forced from their homes in Florida and Georgia will lose out on the opportunity to register unless action is taken.
Today, Project Vote released a statement calling on election officials in these states to do the logical and compassionate thing, and extend the voter registration deadlines. “Because,” as Project Vote president Michael Slater says in the statement, “a natural disaster in October should not mean that Americans lose their right to vote in November.”
In applying election laws, state officials need to consider common sense and decency, especially when we’re talking about people otherwise losing their fundamental right to participate in our democracy. Election officials in these states need to do the right thing, and remember that their job is to facilitate our democratic process, not to use any excuse to prevent eligible Americans from voting.