EDR is ripe for passage this year. Deval Patrick supports EDR and Tim Murray is slated to testify at next week?s hearing. Bill Galvin has said he ?wants to make it work.? Martha Coakley is for it. City and town clerks are coming around and realizing it will save them much of the headache of using provisional ballots for voters who show up but are not on the lists. The Globe editorialized in favor in 2003. We can get this done in time for the 2008 elections.
The main substantive argument against has been concern about voter fraud. But voter fraud — impersonating a voter or casting a vote if you are not eligible — is already a felony in Massachusetts punishable by up to five years and a $10,00 fine. A number of recent studies — the federal Election Assistance Commission (even watered down); Professor Lorraine Minnite at Barnard, the leading authority on vote fraud; Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan — have found that voter fraud is extremely rare. As a recent Washington Post op-ed put it, ?Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike.?
That?s been consistent with my experience in Massachusetts elections over the years and the experience of election protection lawyers who have worked in Florida, Ohio, and elsewhere around the country.
And the more the Bush Justice Department unravels, the more it?s apparent that voter fraud is yet another fear stoked by Rove Republicans, in this case to drum up a basis for their efforts to suppress votes.
The only other argument is administrative convenience and expense. But it is possible to implement EDR without significant expense. And inertia is not a good enough reason to stand in the way of this proven democratic reform,
Your engagement now will help more people engage come Election Day. Mass Vote has been the lead organization in a coalition of supporters (Mass Vote?s Avi Green posted about EDR here in December) and can use your help. Come to the hearing, contact legislators, blog the hearing, we can get this done.
but hey it’s a non profit. You may also check out these bills and leverage an RSS feed to monitor them here and here.
<
p>
This issue is a tough call for me. On one hand, I’m not sure that we should allow someone who hasn’t been paying attention to the election well enough to know when the deadline for voter registration is. On the other hand voting is a right, right? So who am I to say you can’t register and vote on the same day.
<
p>
One question I have is that giving the long lines (not to mention not enough ballots) in some polling locations, how much extra time will this take up?
<
p>
Bingo. Voting is a right — even for the stupid, foolish, mentally disabled, eccentric, etc. There is no measurement for “qualified to make a good vote”, rather, only “qualified to cast a vote” (18+, US citizen, etc).
<
p>
Knowing you have to register an arbitrary number of days before voting isn’t a criteria per se, nor should it be. If somebody is motivated to go to the ballot box, they’re motivated to vote; their voting status three weeks ago is irrelevant. Keep in mind that candidates don’t stop campaigning 3 weeks before the election; sometimes people don’t get motivated to vote until some event between the 21 day deadline and voting day. Why disenfranchise them?
<
p>
Voter fraud isn’t a realistic problem. One additional vote ain’t worth 10 large and 5 years in the can. It’s just not.
I do have a problem if I have to wait in a longer line even though I took the time to register on time and fill out those irritating forms I get every year to confirm my voting status because someone couldn’t take the time to register.
<
p>
If you’re that worried about the lines.
Unfortunately, MA law requires an “excuse” — i.e., not able to be physically present at the polling place — in order to vote absentee. The lege has advanced a proposed constitutional amendment that will make the eminently sensible move to “no excuse” absentee voting, but the process will take a while. ‘Til then, you can’t just decide you feel like voting absentee.
…voting is not a right for people in a number of categories, including people below the age of 18, legal (or illegal) resident aliens, and in more than a few states, convicted felons (can Tommy Finneran vote in MA?). For a long time, women didn’t have the right to vote. Voting is a privilege granted by the state, subject to some limitations in the US constitution and the constitution of the respective state.
<
p>
Voting for president isn’t even a right. The US Constitution grants to the state legislatures the power to select the states’ electors. States have delegated that power to their residents who have the privilege of voting. But, as we saw in FL in 2000, the legislature have the constitutional power to select the electors itself–the FL state legislature was preparing to exercise its constitutional power.
Until quite recently, MA had no felony disqualification at all — felons could and did vote while serving their sentence. Within the last few years, the state constitution was amended to bar felons from voting while in prison. But once they’re released, they can vote again.
…Do city and town clerks actually do anything with the registration application between the registration deadline and the election? Other than enter the names and addresses into the registration rolls (which are used by the poll workers to check off voters when they vote)? Do they actually do anything to verify whether the prospective voter is eligible to vote?
<
p>
I have to admit, I am fairly dubious about the proposal for several reasons, but that is the threshold question.
<
p>
As an aside, I am only being half facetious, but some of this nonsense can be done away with by tagging native-born or naturalized citizens and legal residents with passive RFID chips. It isn’t going to be done, of course.
…at town hall you must produce a photo ID and proof of residence – a tax bill, a lease, a utility bill, etc. RMV registration has access to social security numbers, as well as all of the above. The verification is upon registration, rather than upon voting.
<
p>
Are they going to do all that for same-day? What if you have a photo ID which indicates a different address, and you say you just moved to town?
<
p>
Stomv – I agree the penalties are stiff, but when has anyone EVER been prosecuted since Curley was Mayor?
<
p>
This is, quite simply, the worst idea ever.
…what I was required to present when I registered here. But as far as I can tell, none of the forms of identification you mentioned prove citizenship–they only prove residence and–with the photo ID–identity. Do the city and town clerks do anything to verify citizenship? Legal resident aliens can have social security numbers, but in general they can’t vote.
<
p>
As I wrote, I’m dubious about the proposal. Here in Wellesley, each polling place is provided with sheets identifying people who are eligible to vote in the respective precinct, organized by residence address. When we vote, the election official checks us off. That ensures that we don’t vote twice. How is that supposed to be accomplished by same-day registration? Have the same kind of sheets, but with all residence addresses in the precinct, and expect the election official to write in the names of people who have same-day-registered, and then check them off? That would slow down the procedure considerably.
right up to the last minute….how do I know? I was one of the volunteers in the Election Commission office, and that was my responsibility, to get those registrations inputed and verified BEFORE the deadline. Even if they came in 10 minutes before the deadline!
<
p>
Now some small towns may not have the luxury or the space for volunteers to do this, but many of the 351 do.
<
p>
On another note as one who has been engaged in Civic Engagement for more than 30 years….yes, it’s not a new invention by the current governor (just rejuvenated).
<
p>
Along with Civic Engagement must also come Civic Responsibility.
<
p>
If you want to participate in the electoral process, than take the responsibility of learning the rules and laws of whichever election you are participating in!
Ignorance or other excuses ARE NO excuse. I as a person with a disability . FINALLY I can participate fully in the process, if I can learn the process and get the correct registration done, NO ONE has any statement to proclaim , that will convince me that day of registration is the only way to go.
<
p>
I diligently typed my fingers to the bone with people that used every excuse in the book(except maybe the dog ate my homework), but someone else may have.
<
p>
If they “forget” to bring the correct info 3 weeks before what make anyone think that they’ll remember proper ID the day of?
<
p>
You should see and hear the outrageous stories of people trying to get to vote, so they don’t have to move to the “correct” polling place or not vote at all.
<
p>
And who do you think is on the other end of the phone, “checking” and verifying the validity asked by poll workers so these people can vote? Volunteers like me. And if this passes, it’s doing paperwork after instead of before. Already stretched municipal depts., will still be stretched.
<
p>
Volunteer in Civic Engagement and Democracy in
Worcester
I admit it, I am biased, but I have seen Election Day Registration work in New Hampshire. I worked for the Democratic Party up there during the general election for Gore. In 30 years of practice in Maine, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have shown, Election Day Registration works. Over a decade in New Hampshire, Wyoming, and Idaho confirms it. That’s why Montana got Election Day Registration last year, and why Iowa passed it last month.
<
p>
Simply put, registration deadlines are antiquated. Voters who use Election Day Registration would face penalties of up to 5 years and $10,000 for fraud. They’ve had plenty of tough races in Election Day Registration states, and they’ve never had a proven case of fraud affecting an election.
and I’m for it. Here is my anecdotal experience from Keene, NH in 2006, in case people are wondering about who might wait until the last minute to register. This was originally an e-mail to a friend who had organized rides to the polls in Keene on election day:
<
p>
Hi Charlie –
I wanted to send a note to say how proud I am of the work you did for Kerry in N.H. Since you didn’t see the people who needed rides, I wanted to tell you a story about one of the voters you helped.
<
p>
At about 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, someone came up to me with a slip of paper for a voter needing a ride to the polls. They asked me if I wanted the job, and I said yes, even though I always avoided those tasks on past campaigns. I headed off to find K. J.
<
p>
K turned out to be about 23, African American, the single mother of a pre-school boy, and she lives about two blocks away from the polling place. It took us awhile to find the polling place because my ward captain at the headquarters had given me faulty directions, but I realized even before we located the school gymnasium that served Ward 3 that K didn’t need a ride. What she wanted was a Kerry-supporting mentor who would be with her as she registered and voted for the first time in her life.
<
p>
When she got in the car, she nervously told me all the forms of i.d. and proof of address that she had with her, and asked if I thought they would give her a hard time. When we got to the polling place, she said she wouldn’t go in unless I could be in the room with her. I told her I wouldn’t move from the door until they let her vote. As she filled out the paperwork, I think she got more and more relaxed. I gave her nods and smiles and “thumbs up” signs, as she periodically looked my way. I took a seat on a bank of folding chairs that already included two young lawyers there to observe that procedures were followed fairly (they wore buttons proclaiming their role).
<
p>
For the 20 or 30 minutes that we were there, K was the only person of color in that bustling room (other than one of the young lawyers, who appeared to be of South Asian heritage). I wonder what it would feel like to come from a family without a tradition of voting, to be in a strange town (she said she lived in N.Y. during the last presidential election), and to worry that someone might intimidate you at the polls because of your skin color or your youthfulness. No wonder she called for a ride. I was so proud I could be helpful to her!
<
p>
After she cast her ballot, she had all kinds of questions for me – she wanted to know if it would be o.k. that she had darkened the oval to cast her ballot for the straight Democratic ticket, but had also marked next to John Kerry’s name. I told her that the ballots are always checked for the voter’s intent, and that her intent would be quite clear based on what she was describing to me.
<
p>
She wondered whether it was a problem that she had left the school board ballot blank – she said she hadn’t been following the issues and didn’t feel qualified to make a choice in that race, although maybe she would as her son reached school age. I told her that a lot of people vote only in presidential elections, but encouraged her to be more active in upcoming elections.
<
p>
She wanted to know how she would know when the next election is, and how it would be different from this time – would she go to the same place to check in?
<
p>
She was so energized by what she had just done, and so was I. It was so cool to see the democratic process through the eyes of someone new, who was passionate about supporting John Kerry but had to screw up every ounce of her courage to make herself get to the polls before they closed. I made a point of telling her that it was an honor for me to be part of the birth of a new voter, and that it had made my day to be her chauffeur to the polls that evening. (It also convinced me of the enormous value of allowing same-day registration to encourage people to participate.)
<
p>
Earlier in the day, on one of my trips to your office on Eagle Street, I had picked up a couple of stickers that I thought I might give to my nieces. They had the outline of a pumpkin, and said, “Someone who loves me VOTES!” I realized that these would probably have more meaning for K and her son than they ever would to my nieces. I was glad to have something to give to her as a souvenir of her first vote.
<
p>
I wanted to share that with you. You done good, Charlie.
I’m really supportive of same day voter registration, and don’t understand why MA doesn’t already have it. Several other states have implemented it successfully…some for over 30 years! Voting is a right, and someone shouldn’t be prevented from voting just because they recently moved or forgot to register on time. The systems are in place to unroll same day voter registration. We just need the Legislature to pass it!
Same day voter registration is ripe for fraud, as was the motor voter bill of the 1990s. One should have to go to city or town hall and register to vote. Upon doing so, one should have to show proof of US citizenship. This is what I did in 1991 when I registered to vote in Lowell, it is what those before me had to do. It wasn’t hard, and quite frankly it is the least one can do. It fosters a sense of citizenship and duty.
<
p>
Upon voting one should have to show a form of ID to confirm that they are who they say they are as well.
…one question. What did you use to prove citizenship? A birth certificate or naturalization papers? I first registered to vote in 1971 (in Ohio) and I did not have a certified copy of my birth certificate (I was born in Virginia) until 1998.
<
p>
Given that, prior to the registration deadline, most if not all city and town clerk offices are open late, it seems to me that it is a minor inconvenience for people to register ahead of the election day.
My family travels to Canada a lot to visit relatives so I’ve always had one.
Voter fraud simply is not a problem in this country, either in states that have EDR or states that don’t. It almost never happens. On the other hand, otherwise-eligible voters are shut out of voting for stupid paperwork-related reasons all the time. That is a threat to democracy. Voter fraud isn’t. Thank goodness the utter fakery surrounding the voter fraud argument is finally creeping into the national consciousness.
Also in Massachusetts you may cast a provisional ballot. Your ballot will be counted if you can later prove that you registered in time. Which takes care of your observation about the “paperwork-related” threat to our democracy.
<
p>
Allowing same day registration will make the ability of people to roam around from precinct to precinct on election day casting ballots easier. The potential for fraud is there with same day registration. Plain and simple.
to read the post, rather than just look at the URL, you would have noticed that it links to a study by a non-partisan group. Also, 30 seconds of Googling would have brought up this story, discussing a federal study (that’s right, Bush administration) that, having awkwardly discovered that voter fraud is a minuscule problem, altered the study before releasing it publicly in order to avoid embarrassing the administration, which of course talks up voter fraud as an excuse to further measures that disenfranchise otherwise-eligible voters.
<
p>
<
p>
The voter fraud issue is bullshit, pure and simple. But of course, that would interfere with your talking points. So never mind.
… about polling place fraud that compare EDR to non-EDR situations?
<
p>
Is voting provisional while registering on ED, or is it expected that whatever checks that are necessary for registration should be able to be done at the polling place?
loses a key district in a swing state.
….a big difference between voter fraud as is being discussed (one person voting several times) and voter interference (preventing people from getting to the polls, closing polls early, not properly stocking polling places in “key” districts, etc.).
<
p>
Someone says apples and you say oranges.
In both examples you cite the impact of the vote of a duly registered voter is affected. In the first case which we have been discussing, multiple votes by one person dilutes the impact, or weight if you like, of the legal voter.
<
p>
In the second instance the impact of the voter is reduced because s/he is prevented from voting.
<
p>
Both instances are equally heinous. I was a poll watcher for Kerry Healey in Dorchester. They knew there would be a problem with ballot access at around noon. They didn’t really do much about it. The law should be that you must have as many ballots as there are registered voters at the voting precinct. It is much better to throw away (or recycle) if you like ballots than it is to not have the ballots in the first place.
You see no difference between systematic racial/economic disenfranchisement and a guy who goes around from city to city trying to register and vote again (easily thwarted).
…voter fraud might be a problem. You only know that it hasn’t been prosecuted very often. There is a difference.
<
p>
On the other hand, it strikes me that having to register at least several weeks before an election isn’t very much of an inconvenience.
<
p>
There are several more egregious impediments to voting, including having to provide a picture ID (some people don’t even have drivers’ licenses, because they don’t need them), or a state-issued voter card (some states have been charging for them, which is a subterfuge for a poll tax). Then there was the voter suppression list in FL in the 2000 election. Those are seriously more important than the minor inconvenience of registering shortly ahead of the time of the election.
But the guys with all the walking around money do.
I know we all think that Massachusetts is exceptional, and, of course, none of us would want to live anywhere else, but we do not need to guess about the effects of Election Day Registration.
<
p>
Voter participation will increase. Voter participation in Election Day Registration is usually about 10% higher than the rest of the country. Why? Because we have an increasing mobile, busy population, and when you make it easier to vote, more people do. Campaigns modify their Election Day operations to reach out to everyone in their base neighborhoods.
<
p>
Voter fraud will not increase. Really, it simply won’t. Voter fraud by double voting is not a significant problem in the United States. Check out an intensive study in New Hampshire. The truth about fraud is clear.
Senior officials at the Department of Justice and their friends looked nationwide for fraud, including the EDR states, and they couldn’t find it. Fraud is a cultural phenomenon. Areas with lots of fraud will have it whether they have Election Day Registration or not. Getting Election Day Registration will not turn a make a clean culture fraudulent, or a dirty one clean. Luckily, for the past 2 decades, Massachusetts has been a relatively clean state, thanks in large part to the Secretary of State and other hard-working elections officials.
<
p>
Neither Democrats nor Republicans will see a particular partisan advantage.
<
p>
The cost of elections will not rise.
<
p>
It works, it helps people vote, it does not bring increased fraud or increased costs… it’s time to pass Election Day Registration.
…largely opinion pieces, and to a significant extent damning by innuendo (the Speedy Gonzalez pic). Is that how you people argue?
<
p>
You have never answered the question that I raised: irrespective of whether election day “registration” leads to any significant degree of fraud (which you will never know, since, after election day, it is unlikely that anyone will have any interest in looking for fraud) is there any significant inconvenience to registering a few weeks ahead of the election? And just how many people in MA move between registration day and election day?
<
p>
Until you answer those questions–with statistics, not with platitudes–I’ll say, I don’t see any necessity to change the current arrangement.
They are not opinion pieces.
<
p>
In a tight election, people do look for voter fraud, election fraud, and other illegalities, both before and after Election Day. In the United States, those people are often referred to as “attorneys,” and in larger, well-financed races, campaigns standardly mobilize them before, during, and sometimes after election day. I believe there were over 10,000 attorneys mobilized on Election Day, 2004 by the Kerry campaign alone. I do not know how many the Bush campaign had that day. Nonpartisan groups also had 5,000 attorneys mobilized that day.
<
p>
Campaigns post observers, including attorneys, at polling locations, and those observers will sometimes challenge the legitimacy of would-be voters, who are then, if the poll worker accepts the reasonableness of the challenge, required, in most cases, to provide additional identification. Like other states, EDR states have had very competitive races, recounts, and the like. If even one large campaign had its outcome drawn into serious doubt by EDR, states would have dropped the practice, just as Secretary of State Galvin eliminated punch cards in Massachusetts after the Delahunt v. Johnston recount.
<
p>
By the way, who is “you people”? I’m sorry, raj, if I linked to some opinion pieces (by experts including Secretaries of State in EDR states and voting rights attorneys whose life work is election law). Some might consider the opinion of the Republican Secretary of State of Idaho and the Democratic Secretary of State of Maine to bring a useful perspective to the issue.
<
p>
I do not know have a statistic for exactly how many people in Massachusetts move between the registration deadline and Election Day, however, it is worth noting that the most common day to move in Massachusetts is September 1. Also, town elections are scattered across the calendar in off-years. Often in Massachusetts, primaries are definitive. Anyone who moves on September 1 is eliminated from voting in the primary in their new voting jurisdiction. They can go back to their old one, but they may now be voting for officials who will not have a say over their new community. Movers rarely do go back to the old precinct to vote, especially if they move any significant distance.
…the vast majority of people graduate from college in the spring, not in the fall. They begin college in late summer/early fall.
<
p>
But your point is well taken. From what I have read, most people who are most likely to want to vote move in the spring, after the end of the k-12 school year, or in the late summer, before the k-12 school year begins. For obvious reasons. And they would have ample opportunity to register well before election day.
<
p>
Let me ask a question of the proponents of election day registration. Do you have any statistics as to how many people actually make use of election day registration? If the number is “in the noise” (as engineers would say) why go through the exercise of trying to institute election day registration? It seems to me that the legislature would have better things to spend its time on than this, if the number would be “in the noise.”
In 2006:
In the 80s, the common practice for those living off-campus (i.e, all those students) was to move in on 9/1, just as you say. But it wwas a one year lease, so we didn’t move again in the spring, we moved on 8/31.
<
p>
I admire your contrary nature.
So, when did young people lose the right to vote? Last I heard, U.S. citizens over 18 — like the many young citizens serving in our armed services, working, or going to school — were eligible to vote. Are they not living in “real life?”
Post-collegiate – still the vast majoirty of voters – are not affected by this phenomenon.
<
p>
BTW – when my kids went away to college, they voted at home absentee. What effect does EDR have on THAT? How can we liase with other sates?
…Lord knows that students aren’t actually real. God forbid they should actually really vote where they actually really live during the election.
Here.
How does that work?
<
p>
For example, an alien with a bona-fide lease can easily get a drivers license in massachusetts. Would a drivers license and a copy of the lease be sufficient to allow him/her to register and vote?
Would a drivers license and a copy of the lease be sufficient to allow him/her to register and vote?
<
p>
…it would depend on the election laws in the relevant jurisdiction. There is nothing in the US Constitution that limits the franchise to citizens.
<
p>
The relevant jurisdiction is Massachusetts, you know, as in BlueMass(achusetts)group.
<
p>
The Massachusetts voter must be eighteen years old, a United States citizen, and a resident of a city or town when registering. Right?
Since a person like that could register and vote under the current system, using either mail in registration or in-person registration at a town hall or the registry of motor vehicles. What prevents it is honor, integrity, and a $10,000 fine and 5 years in prison penalty for a violation of the law. Same penalty applies in EDR.
If people can validate their identity they should be allowed to vote. Adding an additional separate requirement that everyone register in advance serves no useful purpose. If additional resources are needed on election day to process on-site registrations, they should be provided. This is the 21st century. We’ve gotten rid of manual telephone exchanges and Morse code, we should be able to manage same-day voter registration.
By who, exactly?
<
p>
Ask how the last mandate about voting machines is working out. To me, providing appropriate ADA compliant voting machines outranks the convenience factor for the disinterested who can register at the library, RMV, Stop n Shop….and advance registration serves the useful purpose of allowing town clerkes to verify the validity of the presented identification.
<
p>
Bob – if the state passes this – WHO exactly gets to come up with the money to implement it?