JESS MILLER, SCRIPPS HOWARD FOUNDATION WIRE
WASHINGTON – In 2012, 30 states introduced laws that restricted access to voting. But some states are using online registration – or thinking about it – as a way to at least make registering to vote easier.
A March 27 report by Project Vote found that last year more photo ID laws, voter purges and voter registration restrictions were either introduced or passed in state legislatures across the country than ever before.
“These laws cause much more harm than good,” Erin Lee, the report’s author, said in an interview. “The proposals don’t actually solve a problem. They just prevent more people from voting.”
Though only two states, Arizona and Washington, had online voter registration in 2008, at least 14 states say they are considering it.
One of those states is Ohio. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted came under fire last year when he attempted to curb early voting hours and shifted the burden of correctly filling out a provisional ballot to the voter rather than the poll worker. Democrats cried voter suppression, and Husted’s attempts to eliminate voting on the weekend before the election was overturned by a district judge.
But Husted said he is now advocating for a registration system that will allow any Ohioan with an Internet connection to register to vote. This could lead to thousands more Ohioans registering to vote, especially the elderly, the young and low-income people who do not have ready access to transportation.
“There are a lot of voices advocating for the ease of voting,” Husted said. “It should have an appeal to everyone.”
Lee said that the annual onslaught of voter ID bills is something that’s a “continuing trend” that she does not see dying down.
One of the barriers some voters in Iowa are facing has come in the form of the SAVE, or Systematic Alien Verification, database. The database system flags likely non-citizens on voter lists, but the ACLU of Iowa is suing the state, arguing that system has a far greater chance of disenfranchising large numbers of legal voters.
Some experts call the rule a “voter purge,” a phrase that was used last year when Florida Gov. Rick Scott used the same database to attempt to strike the names of thousands of people from voter registration lists.
“We’re not automatically purging people like Florida did,” said Charlie Smithson, legal counsel for Matt Schultz, Iowa’s secretary of state. “There are a lot of procedural safeguards in place and SAVE is one of them.”
Smithson said the office is dedicated to making sure non-citizens are not participating in Iowa’s elections.
Another popular proposal over the past year has been voter ID laws, which the report says have been introduced or passed in more than 20 states. Lee said that photo ID laws, which require voters to have a current, valid photo ID, discourage the elderly, the young and those who rely on public transportation from voting, since these groups are least likely to have a driver’s license with an address that matches their current residence.
Online voter registration could help increase voting by eliminating one trip to a government building.
Husted said in an interview that online registration is easy, secure and cost-effective.
Paper-based registration will still be available, but Husted said he believes the online registration system will help to modernize Ohio’s election system.
The office is expecting to save 50 cents to a dollar per voter.
Husted said the system is much more secure, since it is easier to cross reference a digital record than a handwritten one. A voter’s electronic record would include the person’s date of birth and driver’s license number, thus cutting down on someone fraudulently registering another person to vote.
“Allowing people to register online is one step in the right direction,” Lee said. “The first step to being involved in the democratic process is to get on the voter rolls. Anything to make it easier to register to vote is a good thing.” READ MORE