Automatic voter registration a sensible first step

This article was published in the Friday, February 17, 2023 edition of ScoopUSA Digital.

- Jesse Jackson,

As Americans, we hail our democracy as a beacon to the world. And all agree the right to vote is the fundamental cornerstone of democracy. Yet in our election last fall, fewer than half of all eligible voters cast a ballot – and that is considered a relatively high turnout. We need a nationwide drive to extend and promote the right to vote, the most fundamental of all political rights in a democracy. Let’s start by automatic voter registration – registering every eligible voter automatically on his or her 18th birthday.

Automatic voter registration would change our elections. Politicians would have to appeal to a far broader electorate, not simply write off those they know aren’t registered. That alone would bring more people to the polls. The millions now expended in drives to get people to register could now be focused on voter education and turnout to vote.

In current elections, the registration and turnout of minority voters are lower than that of white voters, young voters lower than that of seniors, and poor and working-class voters lower than that of the affluent. If all were registered, with the possibility of turning out to vote, politicians would have to learn to appeal to their concerns. That in itself would change the substance of our political debates.