Online voter registration almost a reality
Yesterday the Washington state Senate approved online voter registration; the House passed their version last month by a landslide so now it’s up to Chris Gregoire to sign the measure into law. To register, you’ll need a Washington state driver’s license or state ID and must provide first and last names, date of birth, address and driver’s-license or state-identification numbers.
Someone, I’m sure, is happy that it’s about to go from easy to register to vote in Washington state to ridiculously easy to register to vote in Washington state. Color me cynical, but combine the existing ease of registration and the ability to vote by mail at one’s leisure and we still have low voter turn outs–I’m just not seeing online registration making much of a difference. Please do feel free to prove me wrong.
I think all efforts to make voting registration easier such as mail-in voting, motor voter registration, and now online registration all miss the point of why people don’t vote.
People don’t vote because they feel disengaged from the political process. All of these innovations actually tend to increase disengagement. They make the vote seem trivial, and people who already feel alienated from voting have just one more reason to dismiss the whole process.
I think better election reform would actually encourage engaged participation. Rather than mail-in voting, have an election holiday, and allow same-day registration. Explicitly declare a constitutional right to vote, to discourage efforts to depress turnout. Work on getting the media to focus on the substance of elections rather than who’s ahead in the polls or who has the most money. (Imagine if sports channels never showed any games but instead just babbled about the current standings and conducted interviews with the owners–that’s essentially how politics is covered.) I’m sure there are other good ideas, just as I’m sure mail-in voting and online registration are not among them.
Excellent points all, Cascadian.
living abroad, online voter registration and mail in voting is the only way i can vote.