automatic voter registration saves money

There is a better way. Legislative implementation, used in most states, allows more input from elected officials in decision-making. Also ideally the proposal has the support of the agency tasked with implementing the change, as well as the advocacy groups and institutional organizations that specialize in the particular subject matter being addressed. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. by Tod Newcombe | November 11, 2015 AT 5:00 PM Georgia, for example, conducted its rulemaking in 2016 and implemented AVR the same year. County authority and “workarounds”- policy wonk stuff. It also requires state agencies that provide public assistance, or that offer state-funded programs primarily engaged in providing services to people with disabilities, to offer voter registration services. AVR registers eligible people when they apply for a driver’s license or share information with agencies in other routine ways. DMV implementation requires only one agency to modernize its procedures, and DMV users are a broad cross-section of society. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (aka “Motor Voter Act”) requires states to give people the chance to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license. AVR would save people time at the courthouse. Reforming and improving the way we conduct campaigns and elections, is the key to reinvigorating our democracy. Hawaii has had the lowest voter turnout in the country for the last 20 years. Signing up eligible voters and ensuring lists are up-to-date are important responsibilities that cost Alabama advocates, civic groups and state officials a considerable amount of time and money. Box 1188 Finally the proposal must have been proven elsewhere to actually accomplish something that is significant and tangible. Privacy  •  Sitemap  •  Site by Bixler Creative, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, according to an Oregon study by the Pew Center on the States, more than 1 million people have registered to vote since January 2015, to re-register 35,000 people with lapsed registrations and to register more than 220,000 people overall, nearly 300,000 voters on the inactive voter list, allow citizens to pre-register to vote before their 18th birthdays, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Alabama shouldn’t wait for federal action to boost civic participation. Ideally, the proposed public policy change does not cost the state money but rather can actually be proven to save the tax payer money. For an eligible voter, this information would be automatically added to the Central Voter Registration file. AVR would get those folks on the voter rolls at a much lower cost than traditional paper registration. Automating pre-registration would reduce paperwork and allow more young Alabamians to participate in democracy. Just 50 percent of people registered to vote in Alabama did so in the 2018 general election – and even that turnout exceeded expectations. It’s worked elsewhere. Some rights reserved. Alabama could have saved about $2 million a year since 2015 by automatically registering all voters, according to estimates based on Oregon’s registration costs. “An Automatic Voter Registration system will save Mainers’ time and our State money, and ensure every eligible Mainer’s right to participate fully in our democracy.”. AVR simply reverses the process and makes it an “opt out” choice. In the half-century since, our state has taken a few steps that increase voting access for communities of color. If a person moves, the process is repeated, with those costs paid again. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Every state with AVR, other than Alaska, uses its DMV to register voters, according to the Brennan Center. Alabama Arise “Making automatic voter registration law will save taxpayer dollars, streamline a government function and ensure the ballot box is as easily accessible as possible for voters.” In March 2015, Oregon was the first state to enact automatic voter registration. Up-to-date voter rolls will help reduce the cost of sending ballots to wrong addresses. The really important stuff either costs a zillion dollars to make happen, and or is controversial in nature– otherwise someone else would have already done it. For example, Oregon used AVR in 2016 to re-register 35,000 people with lapsed registrations and to register more than 220,000 people overall. Perhaps many do not vote because of the current political climate in which nothing of relevance or importance is being done. AVR also would build on Alabama’s recent improvements to streamline voter registration at Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices. Since 2015, sixteen states (including Georgia) and the District of Columbia have approved AVR, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Many states with AVR have seen large cost savings as well. Those important changes have made it faster and easier for Alabamians to register to vote, but making registration automatic (with an opt-out choice for people who don’t want to register) would make it even faster and even easier. ©2018-2020 Alabama Arise. Right now the legislative session is taking up the energy…so if you will be there…that would be easiest for the near future. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Election officials will then make available an option for the voter to enroll with a party or to decline registration altogether. Good news! Georgia, which put AVR in place before the 2016 election, saw voter turnout increase 11.4 percent from 2014 to 2018. Automatic voter registration is defined as allowing, not requiring, citizens who interact with government agencies to use that interaction to register. But DMV-only implementation is likely to leave out many seniors, people with disabilities, and other people who are less likely to drive. During the upcoming 2019 legislative session the citizens of Hawaii will have the opportunity to support Automatic Voter Registration (AVR). I am hopeful that our legislators in the House and Senate will seize on this opportunity for a two-fer: save money while improving access to voting for all.

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