by Maxine Gunther-Segal
The Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter supports same day voter registration (SDR), and it’s long overdue, considering that our 20-day registration cutoff prevents as many as 170,000 potential voters from participating in elections. Also known as election day registration, SDR allows potential voters to register on the same day that they’re casting their ballots. According to Project Vote, “this one-stop process for registering and voting may be offered on Election Day, during the early voting period, or both,” depending on the state.
Election day registration exists in 21 states so far. In New England alone, three states—Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine—already allow SDR. And it makes a difference: Maine, for instance, has roughly 4–6% higher voter turnout than Massachusetts. How can we allow our state to fall behind?
The greater our voting population, the more representative are our elections of what citizens actually want and need. This alone is a reason to adopt SDR. We know that SDR generally increases voter turnout by about 5%. In the 2012 presidential election, among the five states with the highest voter turnout, four had SDR; on average, states with SDR had more than 10% higher voter turnout than those without it.
Same-day registration helps to maximize equity and justice in voting representation. Many groups face barriers to voting based on their identities, including people of color, low-income people, young people, those working multiple jobs, veterans and active military, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. SDR ensures that these groups are more able to make their voices heard and to participate fully in our democracy.
Black Americans, for instance, are systematically disenfranchised. Systemic racism manifesting in the criminal justice system means that “an estimated one in 13 black Americans does not have the right to vote due to past convictions.” According to experts, one way we can begin to close the racial gap in voting access is by adopting SDR. We can see clear evidence of this potential by looking at data from the period when North Carolina allowed SDR: although they made up 20% of the voting-age population, black Americans made up 36% of those who used SDR to vote in the 2008 presidential election.
Not only will same-day registration undoubtedly increase voting access, it will also streamline our voting system. When citizens are able to re-register on election day, and duplicate records are reduced, this makes voter rolls more accurate. SDR will also simplify election administration by minimizing the role of provisional ballots in the voting process. If there are any issues with their registration when voters go to cast their ballots, they’ll have the option to resolve them, rather than being forced to submit a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are often left uncounted; in the 2008 presidential election, one in four such ballots were rejected. Provisional ballots likewise burden election officials with an expensive hassle.
There’s no economic downside to election day registration. In states with EDR, costs don’t increase, but simply shift; more resources are used on Election Day, rather than distributed over a longer period of time. Likewise, while extra resources will go toward EDR, costly provisional ballots will no longer demand resources.
Enacting SDR in Massachusetts will make voting more accessible, representative, and just, and our voting system more accurate and straightforward to administer. If we aspire toward as democratic an election system as possible, then same day registration is an inarguable necessity.