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Published on Thursday, October 30, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
Universal Voter Registration as the Real Answer to Fraud Concerns
Blaming ACORN for our voter registration system is a classic failure of
missing the forest for the trees. Amidst accusations of ACORN putting our
democracy in jeopardy, few are asking why private groups are even in the
business of voter registration drives. The answer is that the United
States is one of the few democracies where the federal government doesn’t
assume responsibility for establishing full and accurate voter rolls —
and it just isn’t working.
Each election cycle, scores of generally well-intentioned organizations and individuals register millions of new people to vote, and inevitably accusations of voter registration fraud — often mistakenly termed “voter fraud” — follow. Some canvassers submit fraudulent names for extra pay; this is what ACORN has been accused of. Many citizens submit forms with inaccurate information.
Although highly unlikely to impact the actual casting of votes, voter registration fraud is serious — it wastes all-too-scarce resources of local election offices, balloons voter rolls with fake names and increases the odds of Election Day confusion. Ending voter registration fraud is a big reason for the government to modernize registration.
These problems are part of a much bigger failure in how we run elections. Nearly a third of eligible voters aren’t registered to vote and our turnout rates are among the lowest in the world. That’s why groups like ACORN have to pour resources into voter registration drives every four years instead of focusing on other means to empower people in their communities.
The problem is our “opt-in,” self-initiated voter registration system. Right now the onus is on citizens to update their information, ensure correct spelling and cancel old registrations when they move. Without a parent who votes or a motivated high school teacher handing out voter registration forms, many young people never register or learn the basics of participation — as if preparation for citizenship weren’t an obvious goal of an effective public school system.
Low voter registration contributes directly to low voter turnout. Once registered, people are much more likely to vote in big elections. In 2004, the U.S. Census reported participation rates of more than 85 percent of registered voters. Four in five registered voters in the 18 to 24-year-old cohort showed up. But even 100 percent turnout of registered voters would leave us with lower turnout than most other well-established democracies.
At the same time, many people are on the rolls more than once and our rolls are cluttered with people who have died or moved. Alaska notoriously has more registered voters than eligible adults.
Implementing a few common sense reforms would go a long way in solving our voter registration problems and lessen the necessity of groups seeking to register so many new voters every four years.
One example is seeking to register every citizen before they reach voting age by following the lead of Hawaii and Florida in allowing 16-year-olds to register to vote, with their names automatically added to the voter rolls when they reach 18. This change would ideally be twinned with systematic registration of young people in high schools and at driver’s license agencies and “voter’s ed” classes on the mechanics of participation in communities. Other sensible proposals include Election Day registration and moving to making voter registration permanent through automatic updates of registration with changes of address.
More broadly, it’s time for the government to take on the responsibility of establishing full and accurate voter rolls. This goal is not rocket science — it’s the international norm and the very best way to prevent voter registration fraud and our low rates of voter registration.
Our ultimate goal should be a democracy where our policies anticipate participation. All eligible voters, regardless of their parents’ voting behavior or where they grow up, should be registered to vote. All students should leave school grounded in an understanding of and an appreciation for our democracy and their role in it. It’s time to respect — and protect — every vote.
Each election cycle, scores of generally well-intentioned organizations and individuals register millions of new people to vote, and inevitably accusations of voter registration fraud — often mistakenly termed “voter fraud” — follow. Some canvassers submit fraudulent names for extra pay; this is what ACORN has been accused of. Many citizens submit forms with inaccurate information.
Although highly unlikely to impact the actual casting of votes, voter registration fraud is serious — it wastes all-too-scarce resources of local election offices, balloons voter rolls with fake names and increases the odds of Election Day confusion. Ending voter registration fraud is a big reason for the government to modernize registration.
These problems are part of a much bigger failure in how we run elections. Nearly a third of eligible voters aren’t registered to vote and our turnout rates are among the lowest in the world. That’s why groups like ACORN have to pour resources into voter registration drives every four years instead of focusing on other means to empower people in their communities.
The problem is our “opt-in,” self-initiated voter registration system. Right now the onus is on citizens to update their information, ensure correct spelling and cancel old registrations when they move. Without a parent who votes or a motivated high school teacher handing out voter registration forms, many young people never register or learn the basics of participation — as if preparation for citizenship weren’t an obvious goal of an effective public school system.
Low voter registration contributes directly to low voter turnout. Once registered, people are much more likely to vote in big elections. In 2004, the U.S. Census reported participation rates of more than 85 percent of registered voters. Four in five registered voters in the 18 to 24-year-old cohort showed up. But even 100 percent turnout of registered voters would leave us with lower turnout than most other well-established democracies.
At the same time, many people are on the rolls more than once and our rolls are cluttered with people who have died or moved. Alaska notoriously has more registered voters than eligible adults.
Implementing a few common sense reforms would go a long way in solving our voter registration problems and lessen the necessity of groups seeking to register so many new voters every four years.
One example is seeking to register every citizen before they reach voting age by following the lead of Hawaii and Florida in allowing 16-year-olds to register to vote, with their names automatically added to the voter rolls when they reach 18. This change would ideally be twinned with systematic registration of young people in high schools and at driver’s license agencies and “voter’s ed” classes on the mechanics of participation in communities. Other sensible proposals include Election Day registration and moving to making voter registration permanent through automatic updates of registration with changes of address.
More broadly, it’s time for the government to take on the responsibility of establishing full and accurate voter rolls. This goal is not rocket science — it’s the international norm and the very best way to prevent voter registration fraud and our low rates of voter registration.
Our ultimate goal should be a democracy where our policies anticipate participation. All eligible voters, regardless of their parents’ voting behavior or where they grow up, should be registered to vote. All students should leave school grounded in an understanding of and an appreciation for our democracy and their role in it. It’s time to respect — and protect — every vote.
Posted in voting
37 Comments so far
Show AllAs far as college students voting is concerned, if the student wanted to be absolutely sure of having a vote in the national election, he/she could simply pull an absentee ballot from where he/she resides when not in school. Vote, stamp, mail. Done. It gets more complicated if he/she has a stake, or wishes to vote, for local election issues/candidates and must register where they attend school. In any case, most places offer absentee (or early) voting options. Why would you not vote ahead of time if you can?
It's the Universal Voter
And it really is to blame
Its choices come from far away no more
They come from here and you and me
And brothers, can't you see?
We just need someone who's worth voting FOR!
I think that everyone should get an automatic voters registration number when they are born, just as they are now assigned a social security number when they are born. Then, when they are 18, they are eligible to vote, unless they are convicted of a felony. This sounds simple enough to me.
In a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, if 1% of the population is incarcerated, or on probation or parole, they should be allowed to vote. A truly representative would have a representation of these people serving as members.
A fair lottery is far more representative of the people than a "democratic republic" which greatly restricts the demographics of its legislatures.
We do. Our President has a criminal record. Nice, eh?
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I think, therefore I am dangerous.
Why should being convicted of a felony deprive one of the right to vote -- especially after time is served and the "debt" is paid? Being deprived of such a basic human right seems a guaranteed way to alienate an individual from his / her society. It's just a way of clearing the rolls of unwanted voters in most cases.
Check out what wikipedia has on voter registration: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_registration
I have never had an issue voting In Canada. I am always listed on the registered voters list.
When I get my tax return each year there a box to tick that asks "Would you like us to put you on the list of registered voters" or some such.
If people do not file tax returns they have a number of options to register. In the last as i was waiting in line a young woman wanted to vote . She did not have one of the electors cards but had a drivers licence and hydro bill that proved her address. She brought along a friend who was on the list of registered voters who simply swore the other was a Canadian Citizen and lived at the address indicated and was allowed to vote.
Our elections are nationally run. The Commissioner in charge of the elections is seen as being Impartial, not beholding to any Political party. If people have problems voting, that person is ultimately responsible and complaints filed are reviewed by a Committee whose duty is to ensure elections as fair as possible and that no one wrongly dis-enfranchised.
All ballots are standardized. They are paper ballots so there is always a record. Ballots are all hand counted with members of every political party in each precint overseeing the count.
Any candidate can challenge the results of a count in court. There is an automatic Judicial recount if any riding is won by a margin of less then one percent.
In this last election , two seats went to other parties several days after election night due to a mandated count as ordered by the courts.
There are certainly issues but I rarely hear of anything close to what happens south of the border. The problem as I see it in America is that there far too many jurisdictions each with their own system in a "national Election" and those that oversee that election are partisan, interested far too much in seeing "Their" party win rather then ensure that all eleigible people have the right to vote.
There is also no paper trail and the United States remains one of the only countries in the world (if not the only one) that allows private Corporations to tally the vote.
It doesn't matter how well elections are run (and I am not being cynical) when the options are between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum who have both been to the same chamber-of-commerce-leadership academy.
Charlie Jackson
Texans for Peace
http://www.texansforpeace.org
The Mexican government somehow manages to register everyone and has no problem with false registrations even though it has one of the filthiest electoral systems this side of Florida. What is the problem with the US? Why should there even be the need to register? Why can't any citizen 18 and over vote without having to jump through a bunch of hoops? What does it say about our famous democracy that so many people are prevented from voting on technicalities? Would we even be eligible to join McCain's famous League of Democracies? Venezuela has a more open democracy than we do. So does Botswana, almost all of Europe, and Canada as well. It wouldn't surprise me that the Iraqis under Saddam had less trouble registering to vote than we do.
In response to the first post, caelidh, I have voted in every election since I became eligible in 1953. I have been an election judge in 4 states as we/I moved around the country. The voters who show the most lack of knowledge about anything except their party, are the older voters. And most of my experience has been with white older voters. It's not new voters who are not educated. It's the older voters who grew up and aged as Republicans or Democrats and just want to know how to tell the R... or D... ticket. I'm 76 now and I have never encountered a young/new/enthusiastic voter who was not well aware of for whom and for what they were voting. Mahrya
I think that with people have grown up with their families voting either Republican or Democrat is what has gotten us stuck in this whole two party situation.
Maybe if we start having better civics education, it might help reduce that problem, and then maybe having a 3 or more party ticket for presidential elections might be viable.
But then again, I could be dreaming.
I would caution.. however. it isn't entirely the #'s... but the quality. I know that sounds' elitist".. but I think sometimes we focus too much on just getting warm bodies to vote and "participate".. but are these folks REALLY wanting to be involved in the effort to make sure our Democracy is running well?
Folks get up.. go to the polls and vote for president every 4 years.. THen they go back to their little worlds and problems still continue.
We need to ensure that every child grows up with a culture of citizen participation.. .. rather than just voting ... voting is the choice.. what leads UP to that choice is what we need to be focusing on.....
"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity" Horace Mann First President of Antioch College.
if diebold had not had anything to do with 2000 vote, we would have Gore. imo, private companies should not have a thing to do with gov functions. w privatized the war so blackwater could torture. no responsibility, no accountability. sadly, i'm just another unemployed, born in nebraska & praying for Obama/Biden '08!
I still find it mind boggeling that the USA does not have universal voting rights for everyone.
About as democratic as the ancient Greeks.
I don't know how many people would vote in Europe if they had to register specially.
We have registers of residents in Europe, as you might know, so every citizen is registered where they live.
Americans don't like this notion, but basically, the US have something like registers as well - the IRS tends to be able to trace even Americans who live abroad - so I find this "oh no, we are not going to have a central register!" an illusion. And a central register automatically means that you are able to vote where you are registered to live, you just turn up and can rely on the fact that your precinct has you on their list as a voter - so no need to do anything unless you are travelling on election day, then you have to do a little more to make sure you can vote by mail.
Yes, as has been said here, while you're at it: Proportional representation makes democracy more unpredictable, possibly also less stable but a hell of a lot more exciting.
What was left unwritten by the author and other habitues of this site is a national identity card. It is that record from which the governments of other first world countries compile voter rolls. Of course, national identity cards have very scary civil rights consequences, given the US government's propensity to abuse its' power, and a national identity card database would make that easier.
WRONG.
The national identity card is normally something you OPT to have in places like Europe. Some piece of ID with a photo on is enough in case of a situation where they ask for an ID - and I can't see that that's different in the US. I don't have an ID card, for example. I have a driving license and a passport, and any of those would be sifficient in any situation!
In the USA, you've got "driving licenses" that are issued to people who haven't passed a driving test, i.e. they are just used as an ID - so just gimme a break!! You've got your national ID card, you just are using some archaic strange inefficient bypasses to camouflage the fact that you do.
Hypocrisy, that's what this is.
Nope, wrong on your end. In quite a few European countries, walking out the door of your house without a national identity card on your person is cause for arrest (such as in Belgium, Germany, & Switzerland, among others). In fact, the various bureaucracies do not accept driver's licenses as proof of identity. Furthermore, your argument is spurious, as the proportion of the population that holds a driver's license in Europe is less than in the USA (though a greater proportion of the population of European Union do hold passports though, which can not be applied for without proof of citizenship, which national identity cards also affirm). As for the "driving licenses that are issued to people who haven't passed a driving test," they're called ID cards and serve as legal proof of identity in lieu of driver's licenses (which are default identity cards issued by individual states). The article which is being commented on calls for a national voter roll. That is accomplished by means of a national identity card database in the rest of the first world. What part of this confuses you?
Look, I am European and I've spent a lot of time in any of the countries you are mentioning. NO, all I need to have on me is some ID, theoretically, that's right, but it's not like I need to have THE one and only ID card on me. And you're not arrested on the spot if you don't, you normally have something like 24 to 48 hours to present your ID at a police station if you don't have it on you in case you are asked to show your ID. Which only occurs VERY VERY rarely.
99% or so of all people have never had to show their ID in their entire lives, including me - except when voting - because you have to be present at a scene of a crime to have to do so.
I am not confused, I find all arguments against a national voter roll ridiculous.
After TWO Third-World-type elections, you have to realize that without it, you are just going to have another Third-World-style fraudulent election.
Which part of Third World-style fraudulent election don't you understand?
Then it appears as if you are not too aware of the history of nefarious actions taken by the US government utilizing central databases (Google "Palmer Raids"), plus what was done by past European governments with centralized lists of people they do not like (the Holocaust would have been harder to accomplish without centralized records) . Thus was the reason for my ambivalence, as I recognize that the current various means used by different states is rather antiquated.
As for your assertion regarding having any sort of ID being acceptable, I guess you've never been hassled by European police who use the requirement to have national identity cards as legal cover to harass of groups of people (minorities of all types, for example) they do not like.
Yes, the last two American presidential elections were quite shady, but there is the very real possibility that the unintended consequence(s) could be worse.
The fraudulent elections here aren't on the voters' end here, and the ID requirements make the elections more fraudulent.
-----------------------------------
I think, therefore I am dangerous.
Automatic registration, paper ballots, holiday voting, all excellent and obvious ideas. Not so sure about compulsory voting...
Let's include these ideas in a comprehensive "Platform for Democracy" with:
Proportional representation; break two-party duopoly, no 'wasted' votes; each party gets seats based on percentage of total vote, if Green Party gets 5% or 15% of the vote in a state or district, they get 5% or 15% of congressional seats; would require smaller districts, more representatives, fewer constituents per rep (represent 30,000 people instead of 300,000, etc.);
Instant-runoff voting; break two-party duopoly, no 'wasted' votes; voter ranks candidates, if top choice does not win in first vote count, "instant runoff" counts vote for second choice, repeats until one candidate has 50% of votes;
[How much energy is poured into endless argument about who is 'wasting' votes? With PR and IRV, all this energy could be poured into - something else!]
Get money out of politics; public matching funds for all candidates who qualify for ballot; if one candidate spends more, state gives same amount to each candidate on the ballot; already versions enacted in Maine and Arizona;
Eliminate 'corporate personhood'! Corporations are not people, have no human or civil rights, cannot participate in politics! Constitutional amendment!
Get government OUT of party politics; end party primaries; clarify rules, allow anyone who qualifies (citizen, live in district, gather number of signatures) onto the ballot - party has same ballot access, can pick party candidates in any legal way they choose - why does government run party primary? Not sure how this one works with PR;
Public budgeting; popular votes on general budget priorities; you think we'd vote 50% of all federal spending on war? Or the pittance that the states spend to end homelessness? (Some state in Brazil has enacted public budgeting; not sure about specifics, maybe grant elected persons some flexibility to move public budget within set limits or in emergencies);
i know the Green Party has some of these elements in their platform. Sure i've left out some obvious ideas too, i'm pulling this stuff out of my... head.
If we had compulsory voting, combined with true election finance reform, alternative-party candidates might become a lot more viable.
Most of the aformentioned ideas, plus some, are already in place in most nations. Voting is done on Sunday in most countries, Australia has compulsory voting.
Most countries use paper ballots, which each precinct can only count in the presence of representatives/volunteers of each party on the ballot. Such poll monitoring is done in the US, but it isn't mandatory and I suspect that in many places, the count is done (or actually, the machines simply are read) with only one party around - the one the poll worker sympathise with. This is what happened in many rural and small-town Ohio counties, where many polling places are at fundamentalist churches (no kidding!). The poll workers then rig the vote count in order to save the unborn babies from Kerry the abortionist.
I've always thought that electronic voting machines are ridiculous - why is such high-tech equipment needed for such a low tech process? And their paperless voting records are totally unaccountable. How does one even do a recount?
Me, I intend to be at my polling place at closing time represneting the Nader Campaign. I suggest everyone consider doing such poll-watching for the party of their choice. It is the right of every citizen.
Kinda hard to have separation of church and state when you have the polls being located in a house of worship.
I would add: change of registration should happen at post offices, when we change our address. Make all of these voter purges illegal - sure, people should vote where they actually live, but beyond that everybody should get to vote. Even if they vote stupidly!
Great idea. Obama, are you listening?
Make voting compulsory. Make it illegal for employers not to give time off from work to go to a polling place. Or make election days national holidays.
A person should be "registered" to vote as soon as they are born. In other words, use their Social Security number as their voter registration I.D. or whatever.
Why should people even need to "register" to vote?
How about a week for voting, culminating with the first Tuesday of November being the day they close the polls and start the official count, which would end in 10 days, like it does now.
I like this idea, too. Give people a week to vote in person. Open polls at 5 a.m. and run through midnight for 7 days straight, or whatever.
I'm simply not a fan of mail-in voting, absentee voting, whatever it's called. There's too much risk your ballot will be lost or not counted for some other (possibly nefarious) reason. If you're out of the country or indisposed for some reason, then do it, but otherwise in person voting makes more sense. Nobody should be denied the option of in-person voting. There should be a number that you call to get a ride to take you to a poll if you can't get there on your own.
Enthusiasm is now the key to getting out our vote. We need to make sure that our enthusiasm for Obama and change is infectious. An enthusiasm that lasts all the way to his inauguration
Now is the time: Tell your friends to tell their friends to tell their friends to tell their friends….
Careful, there, Remy Germain. The CommonDreams commenters don't take so well to enthusiasm for Obama : )
Go for it Remy - I bet one of the first reforms we'll get under Obama's administration will be improved voter registration. Check out the info on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_registration
All men have to register for the draft at age 18 if they want to be eligible for federal scholarships. It seems to me that we could use a version of this to register all our young people for voting as well. Or else, it could be part of a high school civics class (remember when we had those?)that would include civility and polite discussion!
JaneM
What a novel idea. Teach civics and in a classroom with civility and polite discussion!
It used to be that way. Who changed it? Can't blame the far right for this one.
I'm not so sure about not blaming the "far right". OK, so maybe they're not responsible for which classes are taught in school, but have you not noticed that the most outrageous vitriol ever spewed over the public airwaves has come from the foaming mouths of right-wingers? Surely this has done much for the diminishing of civility and politeness in our culture in general.
No one hates like a Republican --- notice how McCain and Palin spread hate, anger, and fear.