Election reform

Bumped. This is something I really want to see happen in 2009. Universal registration, Election Day Registration, and other voting reforms could make permanent the increases in youth participation we saw this year. I hope voting reforms like this don't get lost in the new administration. --Mike

Following the historic 2008 election and the plethora of problems with voter registrations - from partisan cries of voter fraud by third party registration drives to voter suppression from bad list maintenance procedures - syndicated columnist Robyn Blumner offers a solution: Universal Voter Registration.

"The problems arose because our old system of state-by-state registration rules -- some of which appear designed for a mail system via pony express -- is outmoded and frankly retains vestiges of our racist past," wrote Blumner in a Nov. 23 op-ed . "We need to follow the lead of at least 24 other countries and adopt a system of automatic and permanent voter registration. "

Blumner asserts that problems with voter registration would disappear if state or federal government took responsibility for ensuring every eligible citizen was registered to vote. This would eliminate the need for third-party voter registration drives, cut the "redundant, phony" and illegal cards that "gum up" the voter registration process, and curb voter disenfranchisement from problem-prone procedures, such as "No Match, No Vote," she said.

"But if the pragmatic arguments don't sway, perhaps the moral ones will. Holding onto the current voter registration system is like cleaving to a relic of our disgraced history," she wrote, recalling the origin of voter registration, which along with literacy tests and poll taxes, began "in the late 19th century as a way to tamp down the votes of 'undesirables,'" which meant immigrants and freed slaves.

"Then there is the length of time between registration and the election," she wrote. "While eight states allow registration and voting on the same day, 21 states cut off registration on Oct. 6. We can send money around the world in the blink of an eye, but it apparently takes weeks of lead time to put a voter into a database. Ridiculous."

"Despite the large turnout in the last election, there are still 64 million unregistered voters in the country," she wrote. "Universal registration needs to be tried."

Matthew Segal is the founding executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) and the National Challenge Coordinator for the Roosevelt Institution--the nation's first student think-tank. He can be reached at Matthew.Segal@savevoting.org.

Two weeks ago, September 25th, the United States Supreme Court agreed to consider a case on voter ID laws. The case, appealed in the seventh circuit court, requires registered voters in the state of Indiana to provide a government-issued photo ID in order to cast a ballot. Proponents of the law will tell you that photo IDs are necessary to combat voter fraud, which is pervasive and insidious. They will readily speak about "illegal immigrants" who are inundating our polling places and casting illegitimate votes without providing any identification. They will also just say that there is no good reason why someone should not have photo identification; after all, you need one to drive a car, fly on an airplane, cash a check, or even to rent a movie.

What proponents of the bill will not tell you is that, shocking as it may seem, not all Americans drive cars, fly on planes, or even go to Blockbuster. The actual evidence of this "rampant" voter fraud is minimal. Arizona, where voter ID laws were implemented in November of 2006, has 2.7 million registered voters, "238 [of whom] were believed to have been non-citizens in the last 10 years" according to Joyce Purnick in a Sept. 26, 2006 article in the New York Times. On top of this, any undocumented immigrant who is foolish enough to try to vote illegally will likely receive incarceration if not deportation for such actions—risks that are clearly not worth the reward.

In its attempt to cordon the throng of illegal immigrant phantom voters, voter ID laws sacrifice the poor, the elderly, the young, and many minorities as collateral damage. The bill is tantamount to a modern day "poll-tax," that forces many eligible voters to pay for a government-issued photo ID. Furthermore, proof of citizenship often comes in the form of a birth certificate, another document unobtainable or even nonexistent for many people born outside of hospitals. Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan estimates that in her state alone, some 200,000 eligible voters do not possess driver's licenses or any similar forms of photo identification. Many senior citizens have let their driver's licenses expire and many young people have not yet applied for them, while poor citizens often cannot afford to drive cars or purchase state approved IDs and passports.

Requiring photo IDs also increases confusion for election administrators. In a hearing held by the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) this past July, several college students testified about the inability to prove domicile in their college districts merely because their photo ID was from a different part of the state or another state entirely. Photo ID laws can therefore prevent out-of-state college students from registering in the district where they attend school. Were this the case ubiquitously, nearly all young voters would be forced to vote absentee, making the registration process more bureaucratic, time-consuming, and cumbersome.