Blog for Oregon

Last March, several volunteers and supporters of the Bus Project went down to Salem to testify on House Joint Resolution 43, which would allow same day voter registration.

Right now, registration for the election ends three weeks out from Election Day. Those who are already registered in the state, but have moved, are allowed to update their registration until 8 p.m. on Election Day. This leaves a lot of people out of the process.

Those who move into the state are not allowed to register after the voter registration deadline – even if they were previously registered in another state. Many young people who turn 18 close to Election Day are often left out because they don’t know they can register early. Not to mention the thousands of young people under the age of 30 who often don’t get informed and involved in the process until it’s already too late to register.

Oregon is tied nationally for the biggest gap between turnout of those ages 18-24 and the oldest of our voters. A big part of that problem is that the voter registration deadline is only two weeks after college starts here in Oregon, as we have an early registration deadline and a late start to college.

Back in 2004, I had the opportunity to work in the Multnomah County Elections Division as a temporary worker. There I inputted registration cards, answered questions, worked the front counter, and more. It was a lot of long hours and hard work, but the only thing I didn’t like about the job telling people they couldn’t vote once the deadline had passed. We had a good number of people come in who had recently moved into the state and needed to register to vote. They could indeed register, but they couldn’t vote in that election. Some hadn’t voted in some time, and their registrations had moved from “inactive” to cancelled. The only way to reactivate the registration was to register again – which wouldn’t work for the election that year.

I also spoke with numerous young people who had just turned 18, but hadn’t known they could register early (they just won’t receive a ballot until they actually turn 18). But it was too late – the deadline had passed.

Other states have same day voter registration, which has shown to increase voter participation, especially among those under the age of 30. The six weeks of an election cycle is when people get the most interested and the most informed on the issues; however, half of that time falls after the registration deadline.

Oregon used to allow later voter registration (same day, and then it was changed to the day before Election Day), but that was changed. With the technology we have now, including the statewide voter database, there is no reason why we can’t go back to allowing same day voter registration. There is no reason why we should continue disenfranchising the votes of thousands of Oregonians.

State Representative Diane Rosenbaum introduced HJR 43 in order to bring back the ability to register to vote up until Election Day. And it was her Committee that heard the public testimony in March about HJR 43. Back in March I’d blogged about my experience testifying there and what others had to say.

Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, State Senator Ryan Deckert, and State Representative Ben Cannon all testified on behalf of the bill, as did representatives from the Bus Project, Money in Politics Research Action Project, League of Women Voters, Oregon Business Association, OSPIRG, and Oregon Common Cause.

The only testimony given in opposition to the bill was from the county clerks, who brought up the additional work it would take to have same day voter registration, and from Marc Lucca, who introduced himself as the chair of the Oregon Young Republicans. I’ve since been told that the OYR has been inactive for more than a year, and Lucca was a staff member for State Representative Kim Thatcher.

Thatcher was the member of the Committee who was definitely opposed to HJR 43.

Since the public hearing in March, I hadn’t heard anything else on this resolution. On Saturday’s Blue Oregon posting on the end of the Session coming up, a question was asked about the status of this resolution. I checked the legislative web site, which listed the hearing as the last action taken. I contacted Representative Rosenbaum to find out what the status was and if it would be voted on this Session.

I was told it will not be voted on – apparently there was not enough support for the bill, and as such it did not move forward this session.

I am extremely disappointed to hear this. I wish I’d done a better job on keeping up with the bill so I could have sent out an action alert on this earlier. This is a bill that could have done a lot of good in the 2008 election cycle, which is sure to bring forward even more voters than we had in 2004. And it would be my guess that elections offices around the state will be turning away even more voters in the three weeks before Election Day than they did in 2004.

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