Voter registration in the United States
Some historical registration requirements, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, were part of the systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans in the Jim Crow South.
More recently, several common misconceptions have developed around the supposed consequences of registering to vote—that it exposes the person to the military draft, or affects car insurance rates, or requires a permanent address.
[4] The legal case Pitts v. Black in 1984 established that eligible American voters residing in non-conventional accommodations, like a park bench, cannot be refused to register to vote, allowing people experiencing homelessness to participate in elections.
In 31 states and the District of Columbia, persons registering to vote may at the same time declare an affiliation with a political party.
In 2016, Oregon became the first state to implement a fully automatic (opt-out) voter registration system tied to the process of issuing driver licenses and ID cards.
A judge overturned the ID law in July 2016, also saying: "The undisputed evidence before the Court reveals that voter fraud in North Dakota has been virtually non-existent.
[13] In a few cases, permanent residents ("green card" holders) have registered to vote and have cast ballots without realizing that doing so was illegal.
Non-citizens convicted in criminal court of having made a false claim of citizenship for the purpose of registering to vote in a federal election can be fined and imprisoned for up to a year.
All states except Maine and Vermont (and the District of Columbia) deny the vote to convicted felons for some duration, a practice known as felony disenfranchisement.
[15] In 2023 a contractor, WSD Digital, developing a voter registration and e-pollbook system for New Hampshire put in code to link to websites in Russia and used open source software managed by a Russian.
[16] A 2012 study by The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that 24% of the voting-eligible population in the United States are not registered to vote, a percentage that represents "at least 51 million eligible U.S.
"[17][18] The study suggests that registration requirements contribute to discouraging people from exercising their right to vote, thereby causing a lower voter turnout.
In a 1980 landmark study, Raymond E. Wolfinger and Steven J. Rosenstone came to the conclusion that less restrictive registration requirements would substantially increase the electoral turnout.
[19] In a seminal 1988 book, sociologists Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven argued that lowering registration requirements would improve socioeconomic equality in the composition of the electorate.
In an expanded 1990 edition of their 1988 book, titled "Why Americans still don't vote: and why politicians want it that way," Cloward and Piven argued that the reforms were expected to encourage less-privileged groups which happen to lean towards the Democratic Party.
"[22] As Berinsky reaffirms in a 2016 piece, the only way to increase turnout while improving representativeness is making more people become interested in politics.
However, six states are exempt from the streamlined processes under the Act: North Dakota, Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
To underscore this point: during the 2000 general election, fewer than 6 percent of voting-age citizens lived in states with one of these registration methods.
Since a federal judicial order in September 2020, Texas allows residents to register to vote online if and when they are renewing their driver's licenses or state identification cards.
[64] By April 2016 three more states – California, West Virginia, and Vermont – adopted the system, and in May 2016 Connecticut announced plans to implement it administratively rather than by legislation.
[65][66] Alaskan voters approved Measure 1 on November 8, 2016, to allow residents to register to vote when applying annually for the state's Permanent Dividend Fund.
[71] In 2023, the Center for Election Innovation & Research conducted a study of the impact of automatic voter registration in Georgia, which has operated through the state's Department of Driver Services (DDS) since 2016.
Among the key findings: Most states require voters to register two to four weeks before an election, with cutoff dates varying from 15 to 30 days.
rejected all 63 voter registration applications because the fraternity did not obtain specific pre-clearance from the state to conduct their drive.
A senior U.S. District Judge upheld earlier federal court decisions in the case, which found that private entities have a right, under the federal law, to engage in organized voter registration activity in Georgia at times and locations of their choosing, without the presence or permission of state or local election officials.
