Our Inadequate Patchwork Quilt of Registration Processes

Here we go again. Through the fog of emerging reports about administrative and voting rights problems voters face this year one thing should be painfully clear: We simply must get America's voter registration house in order. Again in 2008, in spite of valiant efforts by many and many thousands of hours put in by election officials and voter rights organizations, legitimate voters are once again being thwarted at the polls.

Here are some reports from the front lines--at the Election Protection headquarters where many of my colleagues on the Demos staff are working the phones, answering questions and dealing with potential legal challenges.

In the past couple of days, numerous voters in Florida received letters informing them that their voter registration applications had been rejected, and that they were in fact unable to vote in the biggest election in recent memory. Why? Because their application was missing something. It seems a number of applicants neglected to check one of the boxes on the form or didn't completely fill out a line. In some cases, it's because registrants forgot to check a box indicating they are a U.S. citizen. That might be a problem, but for the fact that those registrants were also required on their registration form to swear under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens. But Florida has required that you check the box and sign the form. A signature alone won't suffice, even though it is a binding legal declaration. Even more ridiculous, a registrant who neglects to check a party designation also is out of luck. In other words, because a voter doesn't designate whether they want to be a Republican, or Democrat, or Green or Libertarian or independent, they get the default designation--nothing, and no vote. Advocates tried to fix this in the past. But the state has held firm.

In Kansas, the state in August acted progressively and allowed individuals renewing their licenses to register to vote electronically. But somewhere between good intentions and reality, many of these registrations have vanished. Voters are showing up, and finding they're not registered. For now, these voters are stuck casting provisional ballots, which is an iffy proposition at best given the vast number of provisional votes went uncounted in the national elections of '04 and '06. Today the Election Protection legal team sent a letter to Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh urging him to issue clear instructions to all polling places to maximize the chances that these people are allowed to vote.

And in New Jersey, it seems the crush of new voter registrations forms has so overwhelmed election offices in some counties that the registrations have not yet been processed, and some thousands of people are going to the polls finding they are not in the official book. Morris County alone says they have a backlog of 1,500 registration forms. The voters here, too, may end up voting provisionally.

By the end of the day Tuesday, we're sure to hear more stories.

What's clear is that the voter registration system needs upgrading and clear requirements that ensure both the voters' interests and the integrity of those lists.. The patchwork quilt of registration processes and rules makes a mockery of the right to vote. There are solutions. The nine states with Same Day Registration (SDR)/Election Day Registration (EDR) account for this kind of error by allowing people to correct their registration, or register anew, on Election Day. Be thankful if you're voting in Maine, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Idaho, Wyoming, or if you've voted early in North Carolina. It's no wonder those states have turnout rates 10-12 points higher than non-EDR states.

And ultimately, we simply must get to the international standard of universal and permanent registration. If the government had an affirmative obligation to get everybody registered, these problems could go away. How about we get that done before 2010?

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Stuart Comstock-Gay is Director of the Democracy Program at Demos, a national, public policy and research organization.

Democracy Program Staffers are at Election Protection Call Centers in New York and Washington, D.C., summarizing latest voting trends and problems from thousands of calls nationwide to the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline.

Comments

[clearsense]

We need a Federal voting registration policy. I am a big fan of states rights, but when you are voting for a national office, it only makes sense to structure our voter registration nationally. On the other hand, waiting till the last minute to register is a recipe for disaster. My wife waited until two weeks ago to register, and her name was not in the register. Fortunately, here in Idaho, you can register on election day, so she did. If she has registered earlier (like when I did), she would have been in the book. But I still do not understand why each state has to have it's own policy for a national vote, it just doesn't make sense!

[MsCanadian]

As a Canadian, I do not understand why the US cannot put a federal election policy and office into place, that will standardize the voter registration and voting process. Elections Canada runs our national elections, and all provinces and territories use paper ballots, and the polls close at the same time (e.g., 8pm in each time zone). In all the years that I have been voting, there have been very few problems. Usually one or two ridings will have a recount if the candidate wins by less than 100 votes.

Now, I understand that the US has a greater population, but this should not be that difficult to organize! All citizens 18 and older have the right to vote, and it is undemocratic to disenfranchise people.

I hope that after this election, the US will reform their system - for all the voters' sakes!

[daveincolorado]

All these problems - made more pronounced this election due to the high turnout - sure point toward some kind of comprehensive, systematic, and consistent solution, propbably on a national scale. It seems that whoever wants to register and/or vote should be able to do so the same way in any given state, county, city, or town. Why should the registration process or the voting process be so different from one location to another? Isn't it possible to nationalize these procedures and have one consistent set of rules and guidelines to follow? Would it be that difficult?

[Dystopic]

Everyone who turns 18 should be automatically and irrevocably registered to vote. The voter would only be checked against the felon no vote list, and no others.

Voting should be standardized for ballot constructing and voting method. #2 Pencil & and Optical Scanner...

Secretaries of State should have no power to purge anyone ever, and should be held criminally accountable if anything under their control fails to perform.

You show up to your designated polling place, show a DL or state ID, and be allowed to vote.

IF voting is a RIGHT, then no one should be able to keep you from voting.

If a state's machines break (which is why we go #2 pencil & optical scan), and no paper ballots are available, the officials should be arrested for violation of civil rights.

[tkj]

Despite this patchwork of smaller problems, the biggest problem is what happens to the e-votes when they leave the County Election sites. The totals are transmitted electronically to the State center to be totaled once again on a state level. The problem is that it has been proven that these county totals can be intercepted and tampered with when transmitted electronically between the county and state centers. (Google: 'Stephen Spoonamore Paper Ballots Please').
Why are we not insisting that PA, VA, NC an OH County Election Officials 'call' their results in to the State instead of transmitting them electronically? At least we should insist that the results be confirmed, verbally, after transmission so that any fraud does not go undetected.

[Dystopic]

The problem is the software on these Evote machines. Being electronic is not necessarily bad. IF we stay with evoting, then the machines should be open source, meaning that the source code can be examined for irregularities. Actually, the software image should be available from a single govermental source, and only installed on the mcahines when voting begins. The various local officials should not have any access to the workings of the machines at all.

Source code would be delivered by either secure wireless or a VPN between the machines and the gov't agency. The ballots would be created by the same agency, with information about local races, etc being submitted to the gov't agency, where they create the ballots and along with the main software image, be delivered electronically.

Tabulation should occur at each machine, with the totals sent to the gov't agency for final tabulation, and a CRC checksum generated from the returned software image and ballots.

Safeguards consist of an 11 person "jury" of computer scientists, programmers and security people. Any software image failing the CRC check, would be investigated and deemed either "pass" or "fail". If the failure does not include actual voting or tabulation, it could be allowed to pass.

[tkj]

Wow! That's very thorough and comprehensive (as viewed from my seat in the dunces' section). And it's all fine and dandy, but this is something that should have been considered and instituted pre-emptively, not as an afterthought.
But then, again, the new e-system was put into place under Bush's watch...

[vernbvb]

This is one of the proposals that should be submitted to the government immediately. In addition to this voting process, our country should implement a national voter registration process. If submitting it does not garner support, don't give up. Start a grass roots movement of support for this idea.

[TrooAmerican]

Actually in some cases, they are Contracted on Purpose to be intercepted by A Third party, middleman data processor company, which then sends massaged data to the state government.