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| Oregon Gov. Kate Brown holds up an automatic voter registration bill after signing it, Monday, March 16, 2015, in Salem, Ore. Seventeen years after Oregon decided to become the first state in the nation to hold all elections by mail ballot, it is taking another pioneering step to encourage more people to cast ballots, by automatically registering them to vote. |
SALEM, Ore.
(AP) -- Seventeen years after Oregon decided to become the first state
to hold all elections with mail-in ballots, it took another pioneering
step on Monday to broaden participation by automatically registering
people to vote.
Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that puts the burden of registration on the state instead of voters.
Under
the legislation, every adult citizen in Oregon who has interacted with
the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division since 2013 but hasn't
registered to vote will receive a ballot in the mail at least 20 days
before the next statewide election. The measure is expected to add about
300,000 new voters to the rolls.
"It just
changes expectations for who's responsible for making elections work,"
said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of
Wisconsin in Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. "In
every other state it's the responsibility for the voters to make sure
it happens."
Some other states have considered such legislation but none has gone as far as Oregon.
Minnesota
nearly implemented automatic voter registration in 2009 before the plan
was vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who said "registering to vote should
be a voluntary, intentional act."
Similar concerns were raised by Oregon's minority Republicans.
"Simply
because it makes us unique or makes us first does not necessarily mean
that it actually improves on what we're doing," said state Sen. Jackie
Winters, a Republican from Salem.
Oregon
Republicans also voiced worry about potential voter fraud, the cost of
implementing the measure, and whether the DMV can ensure personal
information remains secure.
Information the
DMV has on file, such as age, residential information, signature and
citizenship status, will be transferred to the secretary of state, who
will then automatically update registration information.
When
it came up for a vote in the state Senate last week, all Republicans
and one Democrat voted against it. The Democrats hold a 18-12 advantage
in the Senate so the bill easily passed.
State
Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, a Portland Democrat who carried the
bill in the Senate, said there were rumblings the measure was a "secret
plot" to enroll more Democrats. But she denied that was true.
Oregon
already has one of the highest voter registration rates in the nation -
73 percent of Oregonians were registered to vote and 70 percent of them
cast ballots during the 2014 general election.
Tony
Green, spokesman for the secretary of state, said the legislation is
expected to eventually capture all unregistered voters who are in the
DMV database after taking actions such as obtaining or renewing a
driver's license.
Two years ago, when the
measure was first proposed, Green said there were questions about
whether the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division records were
confidential under federal law. The legislative counsel determined the
secretary of state and the division could share information as long as
it was for legitimate government purposes, he said.
People
eligible to vote will get a postcard saying they've been registered and
have three weeks to opt out. They'll be automatically registered as
unaffiliated but can select a political party from the postcard and
return it to election officials through the mail.
Automatic
registration is not uncommon in other countries. A 2009 report by the
Brennan Center for Justice says nations where the government takes the
lead in enrolling voters have much higher registration rates. Argentina
has a 100 percent registration rate, while Sweden, Australia and Canada
all have registration rates over 90 percent.
Myrna
Perez, deputy director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, said a
state needs to already have reliable agency records of eligible
Americans who have demonstrated citizenship in order to successfully
follow in Oregon's footsteps.
Oregon only
grants driver's licenses to people who can prove they're in the U.S.
legally by presenting passports, birth certificates or other documents.
David
House, a spokesman for the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division,
has said the agency can separate citizens from noncitizens based on
those documents.
Oregonians were the first to see all-mail elections, and the state has since been followed by Washington state and Colorado.
"Oregon
is a true leader in accessibility to voting and I challenge every other
state in this nation to examine their policies and find ways to ensure
there are as few barriers as possible in the way of the citizen's right
to vote," Brown said.
