Voter registration, cont'd.
Oct. 7th, 2006 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinMadame Verdi gives more details on voter registration, including states where there are different deadlines for mail and in-person registration. Aside from the individual states' mail registration forms, almost all states also accept the form you can get from GoVote.org.
In six states, you will be able to register on election day. (Montana will be doing this for the first time this year. Also, North Dakota has no voter registration at all.) States with election-day registration have historically had higher turnout than other states, and contrary to widespread fears, there is no evidence that it facilitates voter fraud. The liberal think tank Demos argues that, properly implemented, it can actually reduce fraud.
Demos's documents on voter registration and related issues are generally interesting. Discussions of funny business during the electoral process usually focus on the mechanics of voting and vote-counting: riggable machines, hanging chads, recounts, etc. That stuff is important. I suspect, though, that in numerical influence it's actually far more important to make sure that eligible voters can get registered properly without undue difficulty (if we even need to require people to do something to register) and are not turned away at the polls. In 2000 in Florida, the wonky convicted-felon list that the state got from the private firm ChoicePoint probably had a bigger effect on the outcome than the recount that was the subject of Bush v. Gore ever could.
In six states, you will be able to register on election day. (Montana will be doing this for the first time this year. Also, North Dakota has no voter registration at all.) States with election-day registration have historically had higher turnout than other states, and contrary to widespread fears, there is no evidence that it facilitates voter fraud. The liberal think tank Demos argues that, properly implemented, it can actually reduce fraud.
Demos's documents on voter registration and related issues are generally interesting. Discussions of funny business during the electoral process usually focus on the mechanics of voting and vote-counting: riggable machines, hanging chads, recounts, etc. That stuff is important. I suspect, though, that in numerical influence it's actually far more important to make sure that eligible voters can get registered properly without undue difficulty (if we even need to require people to do something to register) and are not turned away at the polls. In 2000 in Florida, the wonky convicted-felon list that the state got from the private firm ChoicePoint probably had a bigger effect on the outcome than the recount that was the subject of Bush v. Gore ever could.