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How Oregon Became the Easiest Place to Vote in America
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Yes! Magazine
Posted: October 2nd, 2016
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/how-oregon-became-th...
In January, Oregon became the first state in the country to begin automatically registering eligible citizens to vote when they obtain or renew their drivers licenses or state IDs, completely shifting the burden of voter registration from the individual to the government. Four other states have passed similar laws and more than half have considered doing so this year - more than two decades after the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 directed states to make it easier for citizens to register to vote at offices that provide public assistance, including motor vehicle agencies. In Oregon, DMV customers ... who show up in the departments computer system as eligible but unregistered, are added by default to voter rolls without party affiliation; they later select a political party or opt out using a form sent to them in the mail. That subtle difference - requiring people to take an extra step to opt out if they dont want to be registered - is producing results. So far, its working, said Jonathan Brater, of the Brennan Center of Justice at the New York University School of Law, an advocate for the modernization of voter registration. Just two years ago, barely a handful of states were considering this form of voter registration. But technology has made it easier to seamlessly transfer data between agencies, and states increasingly are taking advantage of it. Legislatures in three other states have passed automatic voter registration laws: West Virginia, Vermont, and California.
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