Universal Voter Registration
65 to 70 million eligible Americans are currently not registered to vote. Approximately 7 million Californians who are eligible to vote remain unregistered. The United States is one of the only Democratic nations in which there is no centralized automatic voter registration process. Instead, the process is left to special interest groups, PACs and other loosely-run voter registration drives, which typically operate in a hurried fashion for a short period of time before registration deadlines. The result is an administrative nightmare that produces inaccuracies, duplicate registrants, and unnecessary voter fraud disputes.
To make sure our elected officials are representing Americans, and not just their respective political parties, we must find a way to bring the millions of effectively disenfranchised Americans into the process.
In their book Nudge, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein argue that that we can bring about big change not by hard and fast rules, but by simply altering peoples’ “choice architecture.” An oft-cited example is the 2006 Pension Protection Act which changed the default option in 401(k) plans — before the Act, employees had to opt-in to the plan; after the Act they have to opt-out. This simple alteration of the “choice architecture” produced a dramatic increase in both employee participation and savings rates.
We need to change the choice architecture of voter registration from opt in, to opt out. This can be done by implementing a system of universal automatic registration. In California, there is an historic opportunity to act, right now.
A committee of the California legislature — Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting — recently (March 2009) approved two landmark measures:
- AB 106 provides that any person who fills out a form for the DMV or a state income tax form would automatically be registered to vote, unless they opt out.
- AB 30 will provide an opportunity for high school students 16 years or older to pre-register to vote, so that when they turn 18, their registration will be automatic.
Can you imagine how many previously excluded voters could be brought in to the process if these measures were made into law? Getting a bill out of committee, however, is only the first step in what could be a long process. Call your representative to encourage them to pass these important measures. Contact us if you would like to know more about how to take action on universal voter registration. Let’s make sure the process serves every Californian and, ultimately, every American.
Aaron T. Knapp
Executive Director
Center for a Postpartisan America
postpartisanamerica.org
