Can Automatic Registration Improve U.S. Democracy?

Thursday, July 02, 2009

It is estimated that between one-quarter and one-third of all Americans eligible to vote are not registered to participate in elections—which is why the Brennan Center for Justice is calling for a radical change in the way voters are signed up. In its new report, Expanding Democracy: Voter Registration Around the World, the center advocates for removing the burden of voter registration from citizens and requiring local governments to automatically add people to voter rolls as soon as they turn 18 years old or become U.S. citizens. Calling the current method “costly, inefficient, and insufficiently accurate,” the report’s authors write that “the registration system is as much a problem for the dedicated civil servants who administer our elections as it is for voters.”

 
Canada is cited as an example the U.S. could follow. Utilizing a decentralized federal system like the U.S., Canada relies on its provinces to create and maintain voter rolls, and to add new voters once they reach the legal voting age or become citizens. The Canadian system keeps track of voters who move from one locality to another so they remain eligible to vote, and there have been no allegations of fraud. It is estimated that 93% of eligible citizens are registered to vote, whereas in the U.S. the rate is only 68%. Among other countries with national support for registration, Great Britain has 97% of its citizens registered, Mexico 95%, Germany 93%, France 91% and Burundi 91%.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
Summary: Expanding Democracy: Voter Registration Around the World (by Jennifer Rosenberg with Margaret Chen, Brennan Center for Justice)
Expanding Democracy: Voter Registration Around the World (by Jennifer Rosenberg with Margaret Chen, Brennan Center for Justice) (PDF)

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