Ideas for Improving Voter Registration

In my recent post about primaries I discussed how filling out my voter registration card prompted me to look into primaries, thus delving into how closed, semi-closed and open primaries function with regards to different party affiliations. I later realized that there is an inherent problem with the actual voter registration forms we all fill out: obtaining and submitting them.

The National Voting Registration Act of 1993 (the Motor Voter Act) enabled those obtaining their licenses to simultaneously receive voter registration forms. But even then a large amount of people getting their licenses were only 16 years old, two years too young to vote. This creates a problem: these 16-year-olds are given their voter registration forms to maintain and eventually submit, but there are plenty of teenagers who, expectedly, misplace their forms or lose interest in registering after a 2-year waiting period. 

To fix this, the DMV or another government organization could mail the voter registration forms to registered drivers on their 18th birthday. It is a very simple idea that could yield impressive results. And perhaps if these adolescents receive a voter form on the advent of adulthood, they will better understand their responsibility as American citizens and feel more inclined to participate in the voting process.

Why not take this a step further? Perhaps we should mail those voter forms to every American citizen on their 18th birthday. The ones who don’t care about voting wouldn’t go to the trouble of filling out the form and returning it. And even if apathetic voters do register, I don’t believe they would regularly exercise a right they do not want. But for those who had always wanted to register but either didn’t know how to, couldn’t find a form, or simply didn’t have the time to, this would be a generous and helpful action.

Though one can find state websites for registering to vote literally just by Googling “register to vote,” most people either do not know this or do not think voting matters enough to warrant the time registration takes. Though mailing forms to every 18-year-old citizen may not be feasible, it would be effective. 

People respond to incentives: providing people with accessible and simple ways to register as voters would increase our voting-eligible population and enhance our democracy. More advertising could be done for registration. Forms could be placed in more frequented locations, like banks. They could even be mailed out to immigrants who complete naturalization tests, or better yet, given to them on the spot--unless of course they’re under 18!