In Focus This Week
Move to pre-register teens picks up momentum
Growing number of states allow pre-registration, implementation varies
By M. Mindy Moretti
From high schools to college campuses to local coffee shops and bars, it seemed like everywhere you turned in 2008 there was a young person showing support for their candidate. And while the percentage of people between the age of 18-24 casting a ballot is on the rise — up 2 percent in 2008 according to the U.S. Census Bureau — that number still lags far below other voting age groups.
One way election officials are looking to combat these low numbers is by eliminating barriers to the registration process.
Currently California, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia have laws allowing pre-registration for those younger than 18. In 2009 legislation was introduced in eight additional states to allow for pre-registration with three more states introducing legislation already in 2010.
Pre-registration laws differ from the laws in many states that allow 17-year olds, who will be 18 by the time of the election to register to vote. Pre-registration laws — often applicable to 16 and 17 year olds — have no timed connection to an election. In all the states where this has been implemented, the pre-registered become part of the regular voter registration database, but controls are in place which do not allow them to receive a voter registration card or vote until their 18th birthday.
Even as more states move to allow 16 and 17-year olds to pre-register, another surprising trend might be throwing up a roadblock to pre-registration.
According to a recent article in The Washington Post, newly released data by the Federal Highway Administration underscores a striking national shift: 30.7 percent of 16-year-olds got their licenses in 2008, compared with 44.7 percent in 1988.
However, a study done of Hawaii and Florida’s pre-registration process by Michael McDonald, associate professor at George Mason University, pre-registration programs prove most successful when they are part of a broader civics program and occur in face-to-face situations, among other things (McDonald’s study was funded by the Pew Center on the State’s Make Voting Work).
“Our belief is that the key place to expand voter registration opportunities is in schools — that’s likely to be more equitable and more conducive to connecting voter registration to broader civic learning about voting and voting mechanics in one’s community,” said Rob Richie of FairVote.
Hawaii began its pre-registration program in 1993 and traditionally uses a program called the Young Voter Registration Program, which seeks a volunteer from each high school in the state to serve as a liaison between the state’s election office and the high school.
Florida’s pre-registration program began in its current form in 2007. While the Florida law does not mandate how the law will be implemented, county supervisors of election are required to conduct voter outreach at high schools and on college campuses.
Slowly but surely, other states — and the District — are joining Hawaii and Florida’s ranks.
According to figures from the U.S. Census more than 45 percent of eligible voters in California between the age of 18 and 24 are not registered to vote. Approved by the General Assembly and signed by the governor, AB30 hopes to change that by allowing 17-year olds to pre-register. Although approved in 2009, the law will not take effect until the state’s voter registration database is up-to-date. There is no word yet on how California’s program will be implemented or when.
Beginning in 2006, the Rhode Island legislature approved pre-registration legislation for 16 and 17 year-olds four times only to have the governor veto the legislation each time. Finally however, in early January of this year, the legislature overrode the governor’s veto making Rhode Island the seventh state to pre-register those under 18.
“Rhode Island’s legislative leaders are very selective about what they choose to override — many bills that have initial strong votes do not get placed on the calendar for override votes. This issue always had broad support, but its support deepened over the years, tied to the good outreach work of FairVote Rhode Island and other civic activists,” Richie said.
The law allows 16 and 17-year-olds to pre-register through the secretary of state’s web site and at voter registration drives hosted by local board of canvassing.
“I am elated that this bill was overridden,” Senator Rhonda Perry (D-Providence) told the Warwick Beacon. Perry is a co-sponsor of the bill and said its passage would allow the age bracket with the lowest voter turnout to have a new educational tool at their disposal. “This is a helpful civics lesson to get students involved,” said Perry.
The Council of the District of Columbia approved pre-registration in 2009 as part of a larger, sweeping elections reform bill. According to Rokey Suleman, executive director of the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, pre-registration of 16 year-olds is now available in the District. Although final details have not been worked out with the DMV, any 16 year-old that fills out a registration card will be entered into the system and made active at the appropriate time.
“At this time we do not expect a special campaign to notify 16 year-olds of this opportunity. I expect this to be added to the normal outreach efforts of this office,” Suleman said. “Our outreach program will attempt to reach 16 year-olds through other areas such as schools but the details have not been worked out.”
North Carolina’s pre-registration law allows those as young as 16 to pre-register either when they apply for a driver’s license or during a state-required 10th grade civics class. The law also requires county boards of elections to conduct voter registration drives in high schools.
“We look forward to implementing this bill with partners across the state,” Bob Hall, director of Democracy North Carolina said in a press release. “This is another chance for North Carolina to do good and also be a model for the nation.”
Legislation is currently pending in Arizona, New Hampshire and Washington.
Election News This Week
The Indiana Supreme Court announced this week that it will decide whether the state’s voter identification law violates the state constitution after hearing arguments in the case March 4. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law, but ruling in a separate challenge, the Indiana Court of Appeals struck it down last year. Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, one of the law’s primary backers, said Monday he’s looking forward to “once again standing up for the principle of one person, one vote and defending the integrity of the ballot in Indiana.” A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals agreed with the plaintiff’s argument, ruling that the law violated the state constitution’s “equal privileges and immunities clause” because it doesn’t require mail-in voters to show a photo ID. Gov. Mitch Daniels called the appeals court decision “preposterous.” On Monday, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said his office will defend the law.
In other voter ID news, legislators in Utah are debating changes to the state’s voter ID law (photo ID or two approved forms of non-photo ID). Rep. Rep. Marie Poulson, D-Cottonwood Heights has suggested that Medicare cards should be one of the additional forms of acceptable ID claiming that for voters over 80, it’s difficult to obtain the necessary documents for other types of ID. According to the Deseret News, those opposed to the proposal argued that it will open the door for illegal immigrants to vote. The measure was approved 5-3 by the committee. The South Carolina Senate was scheduled to take up debate this week about a voter ID bill already approved by the House. The House-passed bill would require all voters to show a photo ID when attempting to vote, and requires a poll manager to verify the photograph is that of the person seeking to cast a ballot. The bill also includes language that would allow for early voting up to 16-days in advance of an election. A proposal in Marlborough, Mass. would make it the state’s first and only locality to require photo ID for elections. Marlborough City Councilor at large Steven Levy, who, along with Ward 2 Councilor Paul Ferro and Ward 3 Councilor Matt Elder presented the proposal, said the measure is a preventative one. “I have no specific evidence of” voter fraud, he told the MetroWest Daily News. “I think this is a reasonable measure to prevent it from happening.
This week, a California appeals court refused to block San Diego County elections policies that limit photography and video recording in polling stations. County resident Linda Poniktera sued county voter registrar Deborah Seiler for allegedly enacting the restrictive policies. The Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego ruled that a polling station is a nonpublic forum under California law, so the policy limiting photography and video recording was a reasonable, content-neutral regulation to ensure a peaceful, orderly voting environment. Poniktera also sued Seiler for failing to ensure that ballot boxes were secure and that poll workers accounted for all ballots.
· The Colorado secretary of state’s office and activist groups have reached a settlement in a voting lawsuit that rattled the state’s election system in the days prior to the 2008 election. The groups — Colorado Common Cause, Mi Familia Vota and the Service Employees International Union — sued then-Secretary of State Mike Coffman, claiming that he wrongly canceled tens of thousands of voter registrations too close to Election Day. Coffman said the cancellations were for legitimate reasons. Both sides reached a temporary agreement that allowed canceled voters to cast special provisional ballots at the polls in 2008. Rich Coolidge, a spokesman for current Secretary of State Bernie Buescher, told The Denver Post the settlement creates clear guidelines for when and how county clerks should cancel voter registrations or consolidate duplicate records.
Opinions This Week
National: Internet voting
Alabama: Voting Rights
California: Instant-runoff voting
Indiana: Voter ID
Minnesota: Instant-runoff voting
Vermont: Instant-runoff voting
Virginia: Local election dates
Washington: Overseas voting
West Virginia: Overseas voting
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Job Postings This Week
All job listings must be received by 12 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday for publication in our Thursday newsletter. Job listings are free but may be edited for length. Whenever possible, include Internet information. Please email job postings to mmoretti@electionline.org
Elections Administrator, Everyone Counts, San Diego—work directly with private and public sector clients to administer high integrity elections for Everyone Counts, the global leader in the delivery of accessible, auditable, verifiable and transparent elections using modern technology. Ideal candidate will possess skills that encompass the following qualities and experiences: delivery of elections or other similar electronic business process, administration, project management, customer service, sales, helpdesk assistance, invoicing and employee supervision. Duties: Under the supervision of the Lead Elections Administrator, a successful candidate will work day-to-day with worldwide clients to coordinate elections conducted over the Internet. Duties include: working with client on detailed job specifications, ensuring elections conform to various local and federal laws, set up election using the Everyone Counts voting administration system, testing of the election application, monitoring of election during voting period, responding to voter inquiries, delivering results, and administrative reporting. The Election Administrator will develop contracts with clients, invoice clients for services performed, and work with other employees involved in the administration of elections. Customer service skills and attention to detail are crucial elements of this position. Periodic travel to clients and conferences may also be required. Qualifications & Skills needed: minimum of a Bachelor’s degree is required; qualifications beyond the degree include professional office and supervisory experience; must demonstrate ability to work independently and provide supervision, where necessary; must demonstrate strong listening skills and respect for all clients; excellent written, oral and presentation communications are required; attention to detail and accuracy is a must; requires proficiency in general computer software, such as Microsoft Office or Open Office, and a strong comfort level with the use of the Internet and technology; must collaborate with a variety of people, taking the initiative to reach out to others and to accomplish tasks with high quality in a time-efficient manner. Those interested should email a cover letter, one page resume, and salary requirements to careers@everyonecounts.com. Compensation will be based on qualifications and experience. This position reports to the Lead Elections Administrator.
Programmer, Voting Information Project, Washington, DC — The New Organizing Institute (NOI) is seeking a full-time employee to take on responsibilities associated with the Voting Information Project (VIP), a cooperative project with the Pew Charitable Trusts and Google. The Voting Information Project (VIP) is a long-term, non-partisan effort to connect voters, via the web, with the information they need to be more engaged citizens. More specifically, the project works to get all 50 states to publish polling place information and candidate information in a standard format. These “feeds” of voting information will be available to all information providers in a recognized format. Thus, any organization – national or local, large or small – will be able to serve as a distribution channel for voting information– directly from election officials to voters. The Programmer will be primarily responsible for working directly with tech staff in the states, VIP technical support staff, and Google to implement new feeds and update or maintain existing feeds. NOI itself is a progressive organization that builds capacity and sophistication in the progressive movement in the areas of technology and new media, especially as they relate to organizing. NOI offers numerous trainings for progressive practitioners, engages in data research, and coordinates with a wide range of progressive partners to leverage common interests in the improvement of technology options in the field. The position is hosted out of NOI offices and will include involvement in other NOI projects, but will primarily focus on VIP. Responsibilities: Technical Support and Development including: coordinate with technical collaborators to implement feeds; develop controls for monitoring status of VIP data feeds; assist with outreach and development of promotional materials; create materials explaining technical aspects of VIP; answer incoming technical questions from public and other stakeholders. Qualifications: Basic knowledge of political data; 1+ yrs database management experience; 3+ yrs programming experience; familiarity with XML, JSON, other data standards, EC2 and other cloud services, REST concepts, and comfortable in a Linux environment. The position goes through Jan, 2011, and may be extended at that time. Salary is commensurate with experience, and includes health care. Candidates should submit a resume and cover letter to data@neworganizing.com. The email must have the subject line “Programmer Application”