del.icio.usThe voter registration deadline for the Massachusetts primary was last week. The next day, I was talking to a friend about the election and found out she hadn't registered in time - she didn't know there was a deadline.
In early March, I went to several city halls to collect signature sheets after they had certified them. As I got each sheet back, I skimmed to see how many signatures didn't get certified, and for what reasons. In Somerville, something caught my attention - one of my friends was marked "N"(ot registered). I knew she'd voted in November, and the address was correct, so I asked... and it turns out they misread her city census form in April, and switched her address to where she used to live last year.
I got to thinking about Election Day Registration...
Imagine you've registered to vote, and voted. Then one election day, you go to your polling place, and they can't find you on their list. You've waited in line, it's 8:30am, and you need to get to work. Or you made it to the polling place shortly before closing. What do you do? If you live in Massachusetts, chances are, you don't vote. (read on...)
Sure, you can cast a provisional ballot, but will it be counted? What if you live in a different district? What if it's a special election? The district my friend moved into had a primary for state representative decided by just 93 votes less than two years ago - which precinct you can vote in, even in the same city, can have a major effect.
Mistakes happen. So do computer glitches. Sometimes people just don't write legibly on their registration forms, and get registered on the wrong street, or with a misspelled name. Some voters may find out the way my friend did - if they have a friend at city hall, or they're politically active and collect signature sheets, for example. But most voters won't find out there's a problem with their registration until they go to the polls to vote.
Same day registration, aka election day registration, is a simple idea: If you go to your polling place and find you're not on their list, you register to vote, right there. Your new registration takes precedence over any other registration you previously had, just as when you register at other times. A number of states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, and next-door New Hampshire, have same day registration. They've been doing this for years, have found hardly any fraud with the system, and have much higher voter turnout than states without Same Day Registration.
Why don't we have it here in Massachusetts?
