Expanding Voter Access And Participation

	Calling for Election Day Registration—Pam Wilmot, Executive Director, Common Cause Massachusetts; Janet Domenitz, Executive Director, MASSPIRG; Stuart Comstock-Gay, Democracy Program Director, Demos; and Attorney Cameron Kerry before a hearing of the Joint Committee on Election Laws.

On May 30, MASSPIRG, along with a broad coalition of organizations, convened at a State House hearing to support Election Day registration (EDR) for Massachusetts.

Seven other states in the country already have EDR, Iowa being the latest to establish it. MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz attended the hearing, held by the Joint Committee on Election Laws, and testified in support of the bill as part of a panel that included the League of Women Voters, Mass Vote and Common Cause Massachusetts.

Election officials from several other states that have EDR came to the hearing, and spoke powerfully about how well EDR has worked. Lt. Gov. Tim Murray was the first to testify, reiterating support for the measure from the Patrick administration. Secretary of State William Galvin, whose office would oversee implementation of EDR, testified in support of the policy as well.

The hearing room was packed with faith leaders, activists, civic organizations, neighborhood groups and many others, all of whom asserted the need for this measure, in order to increase access to voting and participation rates in elections.

Spurring A Rise In Turnout
A New York Times opinion-editorial written by the Secretaries of State of Idaho and Maine read, “With Election Day registration, all qualified voters can participate in the vital American tradition of voting without finding themselves hampered by arbitrary registration deadlines. Seven states—ours, as well as Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming—now use EDR, and the evidence is convincing: voter turnout in these states is on average 10 to 12 percentage points higher than in other states.”

MASSPIRG has a long tradition of running voter registration drives each election year, but those efforts have to stop, per current state law, 21 days before Election Day.

Avi Green, the director of Mass Vote, stated, “When we brought in Motor Voter and mail-in registrations, when 18-year-olds first got the right to vote, people thought there would be huge changes in who was voting and major hang-ups in the elections process. Today, we look at those changes as part of our proud tradition of making voting work for everyone. Election Day registration will protect the rights of citizens, and make us feel even more proud of our democratic system.”

The bill, whose champions are Sen. Cynthia Creem (Newton) and Rep. Gloria Fox (Roxbury) is pending in the Election Laws Committee, whose next step will be to decide whether to recommend the bill’s passage to the full body.