Is universal voter registration the solution?

Universal voter registration would eliminate third-party registration efforts. Photo by John of Lebanon.

ALBUQUERQUE — Although the election went relatively smoothly on Nov. 4, the voter registration process was plagued by scandal and partisan warfare in the months leading up to the vote.

Now some legislators and voting rights groups want to change the way we handle voter registration, making it an automatic, universal process. That would make it easier for everyone to vote and eliminate the potential for fraud that’s linked to third-party voter registration groups, say advocates. In New Mexico such ideas receive cautious support from some experts, but are viewed with suspicion by one Republican leader.

In Congress, Sen. Hillary Clinton is working on legislation that would establish a system of automatic voter registration administered by the states. According to The New York Times:

Their plan would require states to expand the voter registration databases that have already been created so that they include all eligible voters. To do this, states would draw information from tax records, driver’s license lists and social service agencies. The plan would also require states to update registrations whenever voters filed an address change with the Postal Service or other government agency, so the 14 percent or more of voters who move every year do not fall off the rolls.

Richard L. Hasen, an election law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, has pushed for a more ambitious plan in which the federal government would build a national database of registered voters.

The Brennan Center for Justice last week released a draft proposal called Universal Voter Registration. It includes the following recommendations for ways federal policy could remove registration as a barrier to the right to vote:

• Mandate that the states put systems in place that would phase in universal voter registration, while preserving the states’ ability to experiment with different systems.
• Require states to immediately implement permanent registration, so that voters wouldn’t have to re-register if they moved within a state.
• Require states to implement Election Day registration, as a fail-safe mechanism for eligible voters missing from the voter rolls for any reason.
• Provide the funding that states would need to ensure that every eligible voter is registered.

Automatic, universal voter registration would solve some important problems, according to one government watchdog group.

“The details will matter but I think in general it’s a great idea,” said Steven Robert Allen, executive director of Common Cause of New Mexico.

“Systems like that are in place in other western democracies and it should definitely be on the table here. It would solve all kinds of problems, including those surrounding ACORN this year,” Allen added.

Whether administered locally or federally, an automatic voter registration plan could have important support in Albuquerque. Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver said she had read about some of the proposals before the election and sees some appeal in the concept.

“I like it generally. My big fear with anything like that is the same fear I have with requiring photo ID at the polls. You have to make sure that the system accounts for people who would otherwise fall through the cracks. Maybe they don’t pay taxes or have a driver’s license. There should be a safety net for people who wouldn’t fit into whatever system is implemented,” Toulouse Oliver told the Independent.

But Republicans have generally been opposed to widening voter registration and some in New Mexico would likely work against such an idea.

“I don’t support that,” New Mexico Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle said. “It’s such a privilege to vote; it’s not asking much to have somebody fill out some paper and say who they are and where they live.”

Ingle also expressed skepticism about a system that would be administered by the federal government.

“We’re so nationalized now it’s almost scary. Every cell phone call you and I make is taped by somebody. There’s just so many things that are controlled in Washington. Let’s have, on a local basis, just a little bit of control.”