Making Every Vote Count Initative
Best Practices
+ Partnering with Motor Vehicle Offices and Public Assistance Agencies
Modernizing voter registration requires coordination between election officials, motor vehicle offices, and public assistance agencies. Upgrading the methods by which states collect and maintain voter registration rolls is not only less costly for the state but also easier than some might expect. Three states have already begun implementing their own modernization process.
+ Election Day Registration
Election Day voter registration allows eligible voters to register on election day, usually by showing valid identification at the polls. Election Day voter registration is curently permitted in Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Washington DC. Connecticut allows Election Day registrationonly for presidential elections. North Dakota, has no voter registration requirement at all. Read our EDR Policy Brief
+ Re-Enfranchise Ex-Offenders
The eligibility of people with felony convictions to vote varies from state to state. Maine and Vermont, allow felons to vote from prison while Virginia and Kentucky permanently ban felons from voting even after being released from prison, parole, and probation, and having paid all their fines. States should move to enfranchise their entire populations, but whatever the state of the law, Secretaries of State and Election Administrators should partner with their Departments of Correction to disseminate information thoroughout facilities and the state. Examples include California's Voting Guide for Inmates and Ohio's Find a New Direction: Reclaim Your Right to Vote.
+ Permanent Voter Registration
States should expand permanent registration protections and allow registered voters who move anywhere within the state to submit address corrections and cast a regular ballot from their new address on Election Day. Telephonic and online tools for registration updateswould also make it easier for voters to update their address information.
+ Automatic Re-Registration Using USPS Change-of-Address Data.
In February 2007, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie introduced legislation that integrates change of address records and the voter
registry. Minnesota voters who fill out a United States Postal Service Change of Address will receive a notification that their registration address is also being changed unless they opt-out. By tying Post Office Change of Address forms to the voter registration database states move toward a system of universal voter registration
+ Assist Special Populations
Residential eligibility laws for students vary by state and should be advertised extensively, including information on the right to register in their state of study, the proceedure for doing so, and any impact that such registration will have on the students’ health insurance, car insurance,
scholarships or their residency for tax purposes.
States with large military populations should liaise with Voting Assistance Officers on base to help military personnel register ahead of time
or request absentee ballots from their home jurisdictions.
Wisconsin has special procedures in place to register homeless people who can provide a letter from a shelter or social service organization
verifying his/her status and the location being designated as a temporary residence.
Research
Public Assistance Databases and Automatic Voter Registration: A Survey
Demos
2010
A survey asked public assistance agencies in 40 states and the District of Columbia about the feasibility of implementing an upgrade of voter registration databases based upon the records kept by these agencies. Responses enforce the conclusions of the voter registration modernization movement: collaboration among election officials and public assistance agencies will increase the efficiency and accuracy of our voter rolls, and lower the cost of maintenance.
Online Voter Registration: Case Studies in Arizona and Washington
Pew Charitable Trusts
April 2010
Technology that provides access to better data and information management is widespread in the private sector and common in some areas of government, such as homeland security. But election administrators are just now beginning to take advantage of these tools. A handful of states have recently passed legislation to implement online voter registration, but two states—Arizona and Washington—have been at the forefront of this innovation.
The Effects and Costs of Early Voting, Election Day Registration
Pew Charitable Trusts
December 2009
An analysis of the 2008 election reveals that the only consistent way to improve turnout is to permit EDR. SDR itself can raise turnout if the window for registration and voting is sufficiently long. It appears that early voting on its own robs election day of its stimulating effects on marginal voters unless EDR provides a vehicle for their mobilization at the last moment.
Permanent Voter Registration (PDF)
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
July 2009
This report examines how statewide permanent voter registration is implemented in several states across the country, and suggests that this policy should be incorporated into all states' voter registration reforms.