universal automatic 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 many of you probably know, Change.gov launched a new feature in the last week called the Citizen's Briefing Book. Much like Change.org's Ideas Competition (which ends today - go vote), everyday citizens can submit their policy ideas for the Obama Administration. All ideas can then be voted up or down by members of the community. The top rated ideas will be bundled into a physical book that will be presented to the President for consideration once he takes office.

It's another excellent experiment in participatory governance from the folks at the transition, and an excellent (and perhaps final) chance for youth organizations to draw some attention to our issues before the new administration takes office.

Rock the Vote is all over it. Today they submitted an entry calling for the modernization of our voter registration system, notably through the adoption of a National Automatic and Permanent Voter Registration:

A system of automatic voter registration should contain five components:

Affirmative registration - States automatically or affirmatively add people to registration rolls. Similar to the selective service, upon reaching the age of registration, the state will automatically add any eligible citizen to the voter rolls and notify him or her. (He or she can opt out if so chosen)

Permanence - Once a voter is on the rolls, s/he will remain permanently on the rolls even if s/he moves. (Currently, a voter must re-register every time s/he moves, even if it's just across town.)

Failsafe – The system should include an Election Day registration component so that eligible voters mistakenly left off the rolls can register and vote on that same day.

Funding – Sufficient money must be appropriated and allocated to states taking steps to implement this system.

Pre-Registration - Include a system whereby eligible 16-17-year-olds may be "pre-registered" to vote. This would bring young people into the voter registration system before they leave public school to begin work or college and are more difficult to track down. Upon turning 18, they would receive a notice they had been added to the voter registration rolls.

Automatic, permanent voter registration will make our electoral system more inclusive, efficient, and accurate. Now is the time to modernize our voter registration system to ensure that all eligible citizens have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.

This is so right-on on so many levels.

First, let's remember that voter registration is primarily a barrier to political participation, created to keep some constituencies (african americans, women, the poor) from voting. People often refer to voting as our civic duty, so it is both ironic and tragic that our government erects and automatic barrier to fulfilling that duty. Automatic Universal Registration permanently destroys that barrier to participation.

Second, we've twice mentioned on this blog that fact that non profits may be about to go through their own recession as foundations and major donors react to the economic crisis and the decline in value of their own access. Voter registration is hugely expensive, and it is a big chunk of what a whole lot of youth organizations do. Universal registration could theoretically free-up a lot of financial resources in the nonprofit space and allow organizations to focus their work on more substantive programs like involving their membership in policy and service projects.

Third, we know that among youth in particular voter registration is the primary reason that voter turnout remains lower than that of the rest of the electorate. When young people are registered, they participate in numbers on par with those of older voters. Automatic Universal Registration can help ensure that the high rates of young voter turnout we saw this year continue in years to come, regardless of how exciting the race is or whether President Obama is on the ballot.

Go vote now and make sure that when President Obama receives the Citizen's Briefing Book, one of the top items is Automatic Universal Voter Registration.