Election-day registration: The anti-voter ID

By Salon October 30, 2012

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October 30, 2012

SCOTT KEYES, SALON

“Voter ID” has become the GOP’s weapon of choice in the fight to keep
Democrats from voting, but progressives may have found an answer:
Election-day registration.

Virtually unknown two years ago, voter ID laws,
which require citizens to present a certain form of government-issued
photo identification at the polls, came into vogue when Republicans used
their electoral gains in 2010 to pass them in states from Texas to
Wisconsin to South Carolina. Approximately one in ten potential voters in
these states lack photo ID, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center
for Justice, without which they will not be able to cast a ballot in
November. Studies have found that minorities, college students, and poor
voters — groups that tend to vote Democratic — will be
disproportionately impacted by these new laws.

Though states with voter ID will likely see a significant decrease in
their voter turnout, those losses could be offset by turnout gains in
states with Election-Day Registration. In fact, academic studies have
found that EDR, which allows citizens to register on Election Day,
boosts turnout on average by seven to fourteen percentage points, erasing the possible-10 percentage point loss in states with voter ID.

Currently in most states, residents must register to vote well
advance of Election Day. For example, residents of South Carolina this
year had until October 6 to register this year, a full month before the
November 6 election. EDR instead allows citizens who missed the deadline
to register at the polls on Election Day.

On November 6, voters in nine states — Idaho, Iowa, Maine,
Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Wyoming —
as well as the District of Columbia will be able to register and vote
on Election Day. By allowing voters to register at any point, it’s
little surprise that, among the top five voter turnout states in 2008,
four had EDR. Maine became the first state to implement EDR in 1973,
followed shortly thereafter by Minnesota and Wisconsin. It was briefly
touted by Jimmy Carter at the time as part of a Watergate-era election
reform package, but failed to gain national traction. The 90s-era Motor
Voter law gave states two options: offer voter registration at state
agencies or implement EDR. Most states went with the former, but
Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Idaho decided on EDR as a cost-saving
measure. The latest wave of EDR laws began in 2005 and is continuing to
spread with the help of voting advocates who tout the positive impact
it’s brought.

Sarah Massey, media director at Project Vote, a voting rights
advocacy organization in Washington DC, lauded EDR as an effective tool
for voting rights advocates. “It’s a common sense approach for
encouraging more Americans to vote,” Massey told Salon. “If you are in
favor of more Americans participating in democracy, then you are for
reforms like Election Day Registration, a popular and proven practice
that has boosted voter turnout.”

Nowhere was its impact more apparent than in Minnesota. The Gopher
State was one of the first to pass EDR in the mid-1970s, and has since
created such a strong civic culture that it led the nation last
presidential election with an astonishing 78 percent voter turnout.
Compare this to nearby Indiana, where citizens cannot register in the
month before Election Day and must present a certain form of photo ID at
the polls; just 59 percent of residents showed up to vote four years
ago.

EDR doesn’t just counteract voter ID in how many people vote; it also impacts who votes. Studies have
shown that young voters, poorer Americans, minorities, and people who
have recently moved — the same groups most affected by voter ID —
particularly benefit from being able to register at the polls. Though
these groups may skew Democratic, academics have found that Election Day Registration actually provides no partisan benefit. READ MORE

Election-day registration: The anti-voter ID

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