California now joins Oregon in moving toward a more robust and inclusive electoral process by reaching out to voters through their motor vehicle departments.
In a bold move last weekend, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that automatically registers Californians to vote when they obtain or renew their driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards.
California now joins Oregon in moving toward a more robust and inclusive electoral process by reaching out to voters through their motor vehicle departments.
Will New Jersey be next? Regrettably, that's doubtful, even as a bill to reform statewide voting procedures languishes on Gov. Chris Christie's desk.
At the end of June, the state Senate passed the New Jersey Democracy Act, a package of measures designed to broaden citizen participation through expanded early-voting opportunities, online voter registration and automatic voter registration at Motor Vehicle Commission offices.
Polls show that New Jersey residents strongly support these moves. A recent Rutgers report found that 67 percent of respondents favored early-voting measures, and two-thirds were behind allowing automatic registration through Motor Vehicles and printing voting materials in languages other than English.
The impetus behind the act is elegantly simple: The best governments reflect the makeup of their citizens.
EDITORIAL: N.J. Democracy Act is a light in the darkness
Opening the process to as wide a constituency as possible can only strengthen the type of democracy the Founding Fathers envisioned.
Let's face it, it's easier to sit home and binge-watch "House of Cards" than it is to haul yourself to the county clerk's office in time for the next election. (Note to binge-watchers: You're already too late for this year; registration closed on Tuesday.)
Streamlining the process will enfranchise more young people, people who will bring fresh ideas and energy to the table. It will help working families whose demanding schedules make getting to the polls difficult, and it will make it easier for members of the armed services to vote while overseas.
Little research supports the notion of widespread vote rigging in this country, but the act's sponsors sagely covered all bases by including provisions strengthening electoral fraud laws, facilitating challenges when reasonable evidence exists that illegal votes have been cast or eligible voters turned away.
In a public letter published in August, a broad coalition of community, labor, environmental and civic organizations encouraged the governor to adopt the measures, calling them "a comprehensive voting modernization package."
During an election cycle when states are increasingly passing rules to make voting harder, especially for minorities, the Democracy Act stands as a healthy antidote. All it takes is the governor's signature.