EDR

Yesterday, the Washington Post endorsed a bill that would bring Election Day Registration to the District of Columbia:

IF YOU make it easier to vote, more people will vote. That has proved to be the case in states that have cleared away unnecessary hurdles to the ballot. And it is the premise behind a noteworthy proposal to reform elections in the District of Columbia.

The Omnibus Election Reform Act of 2009 aims to give more D.C. residents the opportunity to vote by allowing Election Day voter registration and eliminating restrictions on absentee and early voting. The bill, the brainchild of D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), also targets younger voters in two significant ways. For the first time, 16-year-olds would be able to pre-register, and 17-year-olds would be permitted to vote in primary elections if they would be 18 by the general election.

[...]

We hope that the D.C. Council adopts this bill, with one proviso. The provision to create an advisory council to the Board of Elections and Ethics needs to be rethought. Not only is the exact role of this board unclear, but there is a danger that its members, most appointed by the mayor and council, could politicize what must be an independent, nonpartisan process.

Kudos to D.C. for pushing forward this (small d) democratic reform, as well as making a point to bring more young voters into the process. As I've blogged in the past, approximately 81% of registered young voters cast their ballots each year. Voter registration really is the single biggest barrier to youth participation, and at the heart of what many youth vote skeptics typically dub "voter apathy." Apathy is not the problem. The problem is access, and voter registration reform is the solution.

In my view, though, this reform does not go far enough. EDR is a great way to open up the system, but why do we even need voter registration at all? What we need is a nationwide, automatic, universal registration system. Voter registration shouldn't be an opt-in system.

Fortunately, it looks like such a system is gaining in popularity and currently under study:

No state has yet to adopt universal voter registration. But the idea, common in European democracies, is the subject of a careful study by the Brennan Center for Justice and seems to be gaining traction.

The sooner the better. The evidence of fraud is miniscule, and the upside in greater participation is a public good that can't be ignored. If the government can send me my Selective Service card when I turn 16, they can send my my voter registration card when I turn 18.

• Be sure to read this article on Funders' Committee for Civic Participation on the effectiveness of Election Day Registration and what is going on with an EDR bill in New Mexico.
• Jose Antonio Vargas profiles Pam's House Blend and the LGBT blogosphere and its effect on the gay rights movement.
• Read part one and part two of e.politics six part series evaluating the Obama campaign.
• Peter Levine reports on the Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act, which would expand and improve community service opportunities for Americans.

In January 2009, about two percent of young voters are or have been on active military duty. And if the size of young voters was around 44 million (PDF) in 2008, then that means roughly 880,000 have served in the military at some point in their lives. If all young military folks were combined into a state, they would be the 45th most populated state, just larger than Vice President Biden’s home state of Delaware.

With the continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially given President Obama’s recent order to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, young service members will continue to be abroad serving our country, making it difficult for them to participate in other meaningful ways at home. Voting is one of those ways. A new report by the Overseas Vote Foundation (PDF) on the 2008 election finds that:

“[m]ore than half (52%) of those who tried but could not vote, were unable to because their ballots were late or did not arrive.”

It’s important that active service members and veterans are able to vote, regardless of their stance on the war. Other issues such as veterans health care and educational loans, just to name a few, can be advocated through a representative. So, it’s imperative that folks who have more pressing issues (their day job) on their mind be able to vote easily and accurately.

There are several organizations working on the nexus of voting, military and youth. Some youth-specific groups, such as Rock the Vote and GoVoteAbsentee.org, helped to educate, register and get-out-the-vote of young service members. Military-focused organizations such as Vote Vets and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America also try to activate their communities. Youth Vote Overseas is one organization that directly targets young people abroad. The government runs the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) for overseas and military voters. Despite these efforts, more education and refining of voting rules and laws needs to happen to ensure young service members can exercise their constitutional right. The Overseas report finds that:

“[n]early one-quarter, 23.7%, of experienced overseas voters still have questions or problems when registering to vote.”

That percentage is likely higher for young service members since they are very new to the voting process, especially in a high-stress environment. Moreover, there were logistical problems:

“[l]ate ballot receipt is one of the most significant problems UOCAVA [Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act] voters faced. Of voters who received their ballots, 39 percent received them after mid-October, making it difficult for to return their ballots in time to be counted.”

If ballot did not arrive, deployed soliders are supposed to take advantage of FVAP’s Back-up Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, but the report finds that over half of overseas voters didn’t even know this back-up ballot was available.

Finally, the report recommends some ways to improve the voting process for overseas citizens are below, but two are especially noteworthy because the youth community is also pushing for legislation to secure election day registration and universal voter registration.

1. We call for ensuring the important role of UOCAVA
through legislative updates, in particular those that pursue
greater uniformity in the application of this key act.
2. We encourage adoption of the anticipated UOCAVA
Uniform Law intended to harmonize UOCAVA implementation
for overseas and military voters across all states
and territories.
3. We suggest the implementation of technology measures including
online ballot request for registered voters and online
blank ballot delivery to alleviate the transmission and
timing difficulties inherent in the UOCAVA equation.
4. We encourage innovation and investment in the Federal
Write-in Absentee Ballot and broadening the practice of
“Same Day Registration and Balloting” for UOCAVA
voters.
5. We underscore the importance of privacy and security
considerations when applying technology to UOCAVA
processes.
6. We propose a willingness to include UOCAVA voters
into any federal “universal voter registration”

As I've mentioned in a number of recent posts, I think that one of the most important projects for the progressive youth community in the 111th Congress is the passage of major voter registration reform legislation.

As I've written many times in the past, voter turnout is about access, not apathy. There are no numbers yet for 2008, but in 2004, 81.6% of all registered 18 - 29 year olds voted. The problem is not that young people register and then forget or abstain from voting; the problem is that, due to a variety of factors, young people are registered in far fewer numbers than older portions of the electorate.

Today, the Millennial generation is in a position to push for broad policy changes - on energy and climate issues, education issues, and more - thanks in large part to the massive youth turnout and their key role in electing President Obama. Retaining that power beyond one congressional session or Presidential term will require a repeat performance at the polls year in and year out. Reforming our voter registration laws and removing so many of the barriers that keep young Americans registered at low rates is key to solidifying this newfound political power. So I'm super excited to report that a coalition seems to be forming to push forward Voter Registration Modernization legislation during the current Congress.

The coalition, composed of a number of organizations including (but not limited to) US PIRG, the League of Women Voters, the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights, and the Brennan Center, view 2008 as an election cycle in which the biggest problem was not necessarily voter suppression (this does not mean suppression didn't happen, it did. Rather, this year there were no Florida 2000 or Ohio 2004 moments). Instead, the biggest problem in 2008 was registration: not enough people were registered and problems with our complex and varied registration systems left others off the rolls who should have been allowed to cast a ballot. The coalition wants to capitalize on the momentum coming out of the election to push through a voter reform bill that will lower barriers at the voting booth, simplify the registration process, and solidify increased participation throughout the electorate.

The building blocks for this reform will be the National Voter Registration Act and the Help American Vote Act. NVRA mandates that public service agencies provide voter registration assistance. Most famously, this bill is also known as the "Motor Voter" bill for mandating voter registration assistance at the DMV. HAVA, for all its faults, madates that

states develop a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list defined, maintained, and administered at the State level. (Previously, voter registration lists were maintained by local officials.) HAVA requires the statewide list be coordinated with other agency databases within the state.

These two laws will be the building blocks of any proposed voter registration modernization act. In its most basic form, the (currently theoretical bill) would expand these two laws and get them working together in sync. The NVRA would expand beyond public assistance agencies to include universities and other public institutions, and these databases would provide automatic updates to the state voter files mandated by HAVA. Preliminary work is underway to ascertain the feasibility of including new databases and how any challenges to updating could be overcome.

In its final form, the bill would look to accomplish four main objectives:

• Mandate automatic registration: get everyone on the rolls just like 16 year old boys are automatically signed up for the Selective Service.
• Create a system to move information from public databases to the voter roles. This will ensure that information on individuals is accurate and up to date.
• Create an Election Day Registration fail-safe component to ensure that people can vote in the event of computer or human errors in the system.
• Fund the proposal. This can't just be rhetoric or another unfunded mandate. States, public agencies and local municipalities will need the resources required to make this system work.

Throughout this process, we're going to need to continue raising awareness in the media, the blogosphere, and in congress about the importance of this legislation. Of particular importance, though, will be reaching out to local election officials and Secretaries of State. These are the people who can stop this program in its tracks. They must see it as a time and cost-saver, not a burden to them and their already overburdened agencies. There will need to be an education and lobbying campaign aimed at this particular constituency to ensure that legislators are on board and any law is properly implemented.

As I've said, this could be a game-changer in the youth organizing community, and would enfranchise millions of Americans who are not voting or who have tried to vote and been turned away at the polls. I know we are in a time of economic and environmental crisis, but let's not allow this to drop below the radar. As the coalition continues it's work, I'll write periodic updates on where we stand on this issue, and what organizations and individuals can do to help land a bill on President Obama's desk.

Back in December, when the Presidential Transition was just beginning to ramp up, I wrote two pieces about the current state and future of progressive youth organizing:

• Framing the Youth Movement
• Where Do We Go From Here?

These were pretty high level, 30,000 foot views. Today, having finished the transition period, I want to talk a little more specifically about what I think the youth organizing space needs to accomplish in 2009 and 2010 in order to push this "movement," (such that is one) forward beyond the electoral work that has primarily defined us for 4 years. These are the four main themes that I think need to define our work, and this is where Future Majority will likely focus its efforts in 2009:

• Spread Internal Policy and Lobbying Expertise: What little institutional knowledge the youth community has when it comes to moving legislation is locked up in a few orgs with professional lobbying staff (USSA, PIRG, maybe Energy Action). We need to create a mechanism to unlock and spread that knowledge out to the rest of the community. Furthermore, we need to grow our organizational and personal social networks on the Hill and find allies who can guide us through the process, sponsor bills, and give us greater entre into DC. It was my hope that the White House Youth Liaison might in part be an ally in this process, but at this time the transition is completed and there is no word from the Administration as to whether or not such a position will even be created let alone staffed with someone who will be a competent and forceful ally.
• Resist Issue and Age Silos: A framework needs to be created under which youth organizations working on different issues can endorse and support each other. We are strongest when we act together and demographically speaking the vast majority of Millennials are going to be on the same side of a number of issues. It's widely recognized that siloization of issues in the progressive movement was detrimental overall, we should recognize that and be conscious not segregate ourselves along issue lines. Likewise, our work shouldn't be separate from the work of "older" progressive organizations. Progressive campaigns should all have youth-targeted components and rather than run our own programs, we should be running the youth-targeted pieces of these larger campaigns.
• Voter Registration Reform is a Game Changer: We are all excited to make headway on major issues like climate change, green jobs, education funding, and restoring civil liberties, but our success in all of those areas in part depends on high levels of youth participation at the polls. Maintaining those levels of engagement is a resource intensive endeavor that never stops. It sucks up millions of dollars and thousands of staff hours per year. Automatic Universal Registration with an Election Day Registration fail-safe, as proposed by Rock the Vote, could potentially guarantee that 2008 is not the last time we see 53% turnout or higher among youth. It would also put dozens of youth groups effectively out of the voter registration business, saving millions of dollars a year that could instead be spent on GOTV, issue campaigns, and leadership development. That would change the youth organizing space in profound and fundamental ways, I think perhaps for the better. I would like to see some form of AUVR and EDR passed during this Congress, and get all youth groups out of the voter reg business by 2012.
• Reform the Democratic Part(ies) and Party Committees: As I've noted many times, Obama's engagement of young voters remains the exception, not the rule in Democratic politics. We've had a lot of great rhetoric from Howard Dean's DNC about the importance of young voters, but very few campaigns or state parties took that to heart, and Dean's words never translated to a stronger, better resourced youth infrastructure within the Democratic Party. The best that could be said of Dean's tenure with regard to youth participation in the party is that we saw the creation of the Youth Council, and entity that is still getting its legs and fighting for power, and we saw a higher number of youth delegates at the Democratic convention, something more attributable to Obama's candidacy then to any policy or program instituted by Gov. Dean. The argument for greater inclusion of youth within the party structure, and the codification of youth outreach and engagement as a sound strategy practiced by the state parties and party committees has never been stronger. Over the next 4 years we are going to need to make that case so that the Democratic Party does not squander the opportunity of a generation. This is another area in which I hoped a White House Youth Liaison would be helpful. At the moment, it seems as though we'll need to just wait and see what Jennifer Dillon O'Mally and Mitch Stewart, respectively, do now that they are officially in control of the DNC and Organizing for America.

These are what I see as the four main tasks ahead of us in terms of creating greater coherency and power for our movement over the coming years, and adapting to the new power structure in DC and our relation to it. What do you think? Did I leave anything out or misrepresent anything?

As I've long argued, youth turnout is about access, not apathy. In 2004, over 80% of registered youth cast a ballot on election day, commensurate with the rest of the registered electorate.

Today, CIRCLE released a fact sheet that adds more grist to that mill by illustrating the impact of election laws and polling accessibility (pdf) on youth turnout at the polls.

CIRCLE found that simple measures like Vote by Mail and Election Day Registration could drastically improve young voter turnout in both Midterm and Presidential elections:

Furthermore, simple measures to educate citizens about their polling place location, and provide sample ballots can further increase participation among young voters.

It's amazing what can happen when states actually work with citizens to make the voting process more navigable.

The report also contains state-by-state information on the availability of election day registration, vote by mail, extended voting hours, unrestricted absentee voting, sample ballot mailings and more.

There are likely four reasons why youth turnout in Iowa and New Hampshire has been so high:

1. Outreach by the campaigns - particularly the Obama campaign
2. Continued outreach by organizations outside the Democratic Party that has been ongoing since 2004.
3. A civic spirit and anger at the current state of the country among Millennials.

The fourth reason, and I think one of the untold stories about both the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary, is that both states practice EDR: Election Day Registration.

Election Day reports of record turnouts saw may precincts running out of ballots and demanding more from the SOS office, particularly in some college towns. The Progressive State Network is already reporting that in at least one precinct, EDR made up 10% of all voters. National studies by Demos and Election Line have shown that states with EDR have significantly higher turnout, and that EDR can be a huge boost to youth participation, increasing turnout by as much as 14% among younger voters. As I've written before, this is already the case in Iowa, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine, Montana, Idaho, Wisconsin and Wyoming. And there are active campaigns to implement EDR happening in California, Maryland, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont. If we're looking to expand the electorate and bring more people - particularly young people - into the political system, expanding EDR to all states is clearly a necessary first step.

This has been, and likely will continue to be, a battleground between those who want greater youth participation - and greater participation overall - and those who don't. Even as Iowa and New Hampshire are showing us the benefits of lowering barriers to participation, conservatives are working to raise more barriers to keep poor, elderly, black, and young people away from the polls. A voter ID law originating in Indiana is currently before the Supreme Court, and it is likely that the Roberts Court will uphold the law. As Steve Rosenfeld notes in a piece on AlterNet, it is laws like these that keep voter turnout rates so low among certain groups - particularly young people and african americans:

The real barrier to student voting in 2008 is not admonitions from the Clintons. It is a patchwork of state laws, according to Rosenfeld, that discourage student voting. Arizona, for instance, rejects out-of-state driver's licenses as an acceptable voter ID. The same is true in Indiana. New Hampshire requires students to register at local government offices. Virginia allows local election officials to decide if a dormitory qualifies as a "domicile." Some do, Rosenfeld said, and some do not. New Mexico restricts the number of voter registration forms one person may carry at a time. And Texas has new penalties for "improperly" helping people with absentee ballots.

Many of these laws -- particularly the voter ID laws and restrictions on registration drives -- have come into effect since the last presidential election. State legislatures, usually with Republican majorities, adopted the measures to combat "voter fraud," or what the GOP has said is people impersonating other voters for partisan benefit. What's notable about these laws is they affect an entire state electorate, while the problems provoking their adoption almost always concern a handful of individuals. That disparity has led many voting rights advocates to say these laws are meant to discourage Democratic voters.

These laws do little to make our elections more secure or reliable. Actual instances of voter fraud of the kind that could be prevented by stricter ID laws is virtually non-existent. All these laws do is limit the size of the electorate to keep certain groups out of the ballot box. I know it's hard to focus on anything other than the election during a Presidential cycle - and for all I know very little chance of implementing new voting laws until after November. But come January 2009, implementing EDR should be one of the primary goals of youth groups - non partisan and partisan alike. Higher turnout is the key to getting more power for young people in our political system.

Ok. I think we need a lift-up here after the craziness of the last week. Here's some good news about youth voting. All voting should be as easy as this:

Conventional wisdom states that low turnout rates are evidence that young people are less engaged than older Americans in civic life.  Yet with high rates of volunteerism and increasing engagement, this is clearly wrong.  Something else is going on.  As the Brennan Center, Demos, and even Rolling Stone have ably chronicled, young people - particularly students - face high barriers to entry for participating in the political process.

Since the 1970's and 80's, many university towns - particularly small towns in rural areas, where the students vastly outnumber local populations - have actively sought to disenfranchise students.  This has taken a variety of forms including closing polling places on campuses, declaring dormitories to be ineligible as a "permanent places of residence," and regulations necessitating that a student's place of residence and drivers license address match - a near impossibility for students.  Barriers like these are compounded by a problem that all young people typically face - we are a highly mobile bunch, switching residences, towns, even states from year to year as we jump jobs and apartments.  

If we want young people participating in politics, we should work to ensure that the system actually encourages and facilitates that participation.  One way to do that is Election Day Registration.  To be sure, it won't solve all of the problems I mentioned that prevent young people from voting, but it would be a huge step in the right direction.

In 2006, seven states employed Election Day Registration - Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming. According to Demos (pdf), those seven states consistently see some of the highest rates of turnout in the country (see graph below).  In 2006, turnout in EDR states was 48.7% vs. an average of 38.2% in non EDR states.  

Switching back to young voters, it is estimated that Election Day Registration could increase youth turnout by as much as 14%.  To put that into perspective, the massive turnout increase among young voters that we saw in 2004 represented only an 11% overall increase. If we had EDR in all 50 states, and young voters continued to vote 2-1 in favor of Democrats, we'd likely see a Democratic landslide that would dwarf last year's blue wave.