Hat-tip to poster YeaYouRite for suggesting a simple but profoundly powerful idea:
2. If Republicans are going to pass voter ID laws, why aren't blue-state Democrats passing laws to automatically register everyone who gets a drivers license or a state ID? Or passing pre-registration laws like the one that the GOP repealed in North Carolina? Or passing online voter registration, which actually saves money? Same day registration is another great one.
It seems that
several states have tried, but no one yet has been able to safeguard this basic right/privilege of citizenship. Indeed
many states are actively looking to weaken that right. Those Republican led states are actually
trying to put more obstacles in the way of the voters.
In state of Oregon however, the democratically thinking officials there are actually trying to 'remove those obstacles' to voting ...
Oregon May Be 1st with Automatic Voter Registration
governing.com -- April 5, 2013
Secretary of State Kate Brown wants to make Oregon the first state to instantly register voters when they apply for a driver's license.
[...]
Brown, now in her second term, is pushing for legislation that would instantly register voters based on information gleaned from their DMV records. The plan would make Oregon the only state in the country to automatically register voters.
"I’m really passionate about this issue,” says Brown, who added that registration should not keep people from participating in their "fundamental right" to vote.
[...]
Here's some of key steps needed by of that simple but profoundly powerful idea that would help make our right to vote -- more of a given.
Oregon House Bill -- openstates.org
Requires designated voter registration agencies to submit change of address information to Secretary of State for purposes of updating voter registration.
Introduced Jan 14, 2013
77th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY -- 2013 Regular Session
House Bill 2198
Introduced and printed pursuant to House Rule 12.00. Presession filed (at the request of Secretary of State Kate Brown)
[...]
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
SECTION 1. ORS 247.208 is amended to read:
247.208. (1) The Secretary of State by rule, in accordance with the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-31), shall designate agencies as voter registration agencies. Agencies designated may include state, county, city or district offices and federal and nongovernmental offices with the agreement of the federal or nongovernmental offices.
(2) Services required by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-31) shall be made available in connection with any registration card at each voter registration agency designated by the Secretary of State.
[...]
(4) Each state agency required to be designated a voter registration agency under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-31) shall, with each application for service or assistance and with each recertification, renewal or change of address form relating to the service or assistance:
(a) Distribute a registration card, including all statements required under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-31); and
(b) Provide a form including other information required by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-31).
[...]
SECTION 2. ORS 247.295 is amended to read:
247.295. (1) The Secretary of State shall subscribe to a change of address service that is approved or endorsed by the United States Postal Service and use the service to verify the accuracy of the addresses of electors contained in the centralized voter registration system.
[(2)] If the secretary determines that the address of an elector is different from the address for the elector as contained in the records of the county clerk, the secretary shall provide the information [obtained under this section] to the county clerk of each affected county.
(2) If the Secretary of State receives an elector’s change of address information submitted from a voter registration agency under ORS 247.208 and determines that the address is different from the address for the elector as contained in the records of the county clerk, the secretary shall provide the information to the county clerk of each affected county.
[...]
Why should the DMV go through this "extra trouble" (automatically) -- when they
already offer the "optional" voter registration service anyways?
What difference will automatic registration really make? Well quite a lot actually ...
Continuing from the intro link from governing.com ...
The effort would work in tandem with the unique system of voting in Oregon, launched in 1998, in which residents receive ballots by mail and either send them back or drop them off at designated sites. That system has led to Oregon having some of the highest turnout rates in the nation (Washington is the only other state with vote-by-mail). But [Kate] Brown says while the system means high turnout, it doesn’t mean high registration rates. About a quarter of eligible Oregon voters weren’t registered as of Election Day 2012.
Unfortunately, Republicans for some odd reason, always seem to want to
make Voting a more difficult thing. For some odd reason they don't want everyone to vote ... not even in Oregon sadly.
Oregon Senate rejects automatic voter registration
by The Associated Press -- Jul 7, 2013
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Senate has rejected a bill that would use driving records to automatically register people to vote.
The bill failed in a 15-15 vote Sunday following passionate testimony from lawmakers on both sides of the issue.
Sen. Jackie Winters, the first African-American Republican to serve in the Oregon Legislature, said automating the voter registration system trivializes the act of voting, a right her grandfather had to fight for. Republicans and one Democrat joined her in opposition, saying people who choose not to register to vote shouldn't be forced onto the voter rolls.
[...]
Here's to hoping this common sense idea (of automatic voter registration), doesn't fall by the
uncommon-senseless wayside, elsewhere. Wherever the local voter-citizens dare to safeguard their most basic of American rights.
Rights for some odd reason Republicans would deny us, whenever they can find a rollback-democracy way.