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P O L I T I C A L R E F O R M

Election Day RegistrationThis article was adapted from“Voters Win with Election DayRegistration, ” a report publishedin February 2007 by DEMOS: ANetwork for Ideas and Action.www.demos.org

MOS POLICY BRIEF

Election Day Registration (EDR),

sometimes called “same day regis-

tration,” allows eligible voters to

register and cast a ballot on

Election Day. Seven states currently

have EDR. Maine, Minnesota, and

Wisconsin adopted it in the 1970s;

Idaho, New Hampshire, and Wyo-

ming enacted Election Day Regis-

tration two decades later; and

Montana implemented it in 2006.

By counteracting arbitrary voter reg-

istration deadlines, EDR greatly

enhances the opportunity for

Americans to participate in the

electoral process and cast a ballot

that will be properly counted.

States with EDR have consistently

boasted of a turnout rate 10–12

percentage points higher than

states that do not offer Election Day

Registration. The 2006 midterm

election was no different.

Voter Turnout in the 2006 Midterm

Election

The Montana legislature adopted

Election Day Registration in 2005.

The law, which was enacted with

bipartisan support, does not allow

citizens to register and vote at

polling places, as in other EDR

states. Instead, Montanans may

register and cast ballots at central

county offices. The Montana secre-

tary of state reported that despite

this inconvenience almost four

thousand Montana citizens regis-

tered and voted on Election Day in

2006.

Their ballots figured in the 6 per-

centage point increase in voter

turnout over the 2002 midterm

election. 2006 marked the highest

turnout year the state has seen in

a midterm election in a decade.

News reports indicate young voters

were among those who benefited

most from EDR. Election Day

Registration may have proven

decisive for both Democrats and

Republicans in 2006. Jon Tester

beat his opponent for a U.S.

Senate seat by thirty-five hundred

votes, a margin of victory smaller

than the number of Montanans

who registered and voted on

November 7. (Nearly four thou-

sand people registered on Election

Day. This was significant in a close

race such as Tester’s.) House

Republican Krayton Kerns’s three-

vote victory over his Democratic

opponent allowed the GOP to

regain control of the lower state

house.

Idaho recorded 54,531 individuals

registering to vote on Election Day,

representing 12 percent of the total

ballots cast in the election. Several

counties had an even higher rate of

EDR voters.

Maine’s voter turnout topped 51

percent in 2006—significantly

higher than the 38 percent average

for non-EDR states.

A survey of county clerks’ offices

shows that almost three hundred

thousand people registered using

EDR in Minnesota in the 2006

election, 13 percent of all ballots

cast. Election Day registrations

accounted for more than 15 per-

cent of the ballots cast in twelve

counties.

The secretary of state reports that

26,024 New Hampshire residents

registered and voted on Election

Day in 2006. Of the 418,550 bal-

lots cast in the state, 6.2 percent

were from individuals registering on

Election Day.

Wisconsin reported approximately

358,000 registrations on Election

B Y D E M O S

© 2007 Wi ley Per iodicals , Inc .Publ ished onl ine in Wi ley InterScience (www.interscience.wi ley.com)

Nat ional Civ ic Review • DOI : 10.1002/ncr.178 • Summer 2007

50

Day in 2006. This figure accounts

for almost 17 percent of the total

turnout for the state.

In Wyoming, more than eleven

thousand people registered using

EDR in the November 2006 elec-

tion. Their votes constituted more

than 6 percent of the ballots

cast.

The midterm election of 2006 fea-

tured some of the most highly con-

tested races of the decade. The

votes of Election Day registrants

became more important as the

number of closely contested races

rose in the final hours of the elec-

tion. Preliminary data indicate that

EDR greatly facilitated voter partic-

ipation in these elections.

Data from state and county election

officials show that nearly 750,000

individuals registered and voted

on Election Day. This bloc of voters

is larger than the populations of

Washington, DC; Des Moines, Iowa;

Tacoma, Washington; Jackson,

Mississippi; or Ft. Meyers, Florida.

In fact, it is larger than the entire

population of Wyoming or Vermont.

These votes made up almost 13

percent of the ballots reported in

EDR states. Without Election Day

Registration, hundreds of thou-

sands of Americans might have

been excluded from a momentous

national election.

Voter turnout in the seven states

that offered Election Day Registra-

tion in the 2006 election was, on

average, more than 10 percentage

points higher than in states with-

out EDR. Five EDR states made

the list of top ten voter turn-

out states in 2006 (Minnesota,

Montana, Maine, Wisconsin, and

Wyoming).

EDR states consistently boast

higher turnout than non-EDR

states. States with Election Day

Registration have enjoyed higher

voter turnout than those without

EDR for more than twenty-five

years, in both presidential and

midterm elections. In the 2004

presidential race, EDR states had

an average turnout 12 percentage

points higher than the average

turnout for non-EDR states.

EDR counteracts arbitrary voter reg-

istration deadlines. Voter registra-

tion deadlines vary widely across

the nation. The experience of EDR

states show that these cut-off dates

bear little relevance to a state’s

ability to run a smooth election.

Nevertheless, twenty-seven states

cut off voter registration twenty-five

or more days before the election,

well before many would-be voters

could have been fully apprised of

candidates and campaign issues.

Voter registration deadlines close

before the media and the public

fully focus on elections. A recent

study found that more than 40 per-

cent of election news stories were

aired in the final week before the

2006 election. A 2000 election

poll found that the percentage of

people giving “quite a lot” of

thought to the election rose signifi-

cantly as Election Day approached,

from 59 percent in September to

75 percent in the first week of

November.

Competition can also increase in

the final weeks of an election. The

Cook Political Report, which pro-

vides nonpartisan online analyses

of electoral politics, classified

twenty-five U.S. House seats

across sixteen states as highly

competitive in early October

2006. By November 6, after all

registration deadlines had passed,

the number of House seats consid-

ered to be highly competitive

increased to thirty-nine across

twenty-three states. An unregis-

tered voter moved to action in this

final week would have been ineli-

gible to cast a countable ballot in

forty-two states. EDR allows eligi-

ble voters who may have been mis-

takenly purged from the voting

rolls to cast a meaningful ballot.

The Help America Vote Act of

2002 required states to offer pro-

visional ballots at the polls to vot-

ers whose names did not appear

on the voter rolls. These provi-

National Civ ic Review DOI : 10.1002/ncr Summer 2007

51

sional ballots will be counted only

if election officials subsequently

determine that the individuals

were eligible to vote.

More than one in three of the almost

two million provisional ballots cast

in 2004 were ultimately dis-

counted. Much like patients sent

home with a placebo, many provi-

sional voters mistakenly believe that

they were given a genuine opportu-

nity to vote. EDR allows voters who

have been purged or mistakenly left

off the rolls to reregister and cast a

ballot that will be counted.

EDR Assists Young Voters

Young Americans move frequently

—for school, for jobs, for family—

making it harder for them to keep

their voter registration current.

Although voter turnout increased

among youths in 2004, it still

lagged behind the overall turnout

rate. EDR is a powerful tool that

can be used to ensure that young

people are able to register and vote.

Research indicates that allowing

young people to register to vote on

Election Day could increase youth

turnout in presidential elections by

as much as 14 percentage points.

EDR enfranchises geographically

mobile and lower-income citizens.

Census data show that almost 40

million Americans moved between

2004 and 2005. More than one-

third of those moving during this

period had an income of less than

$25,000.

With voter registration deadlines,

many Americans who have recently

moved are unable to fulfill their duty

as citizens to vote in elections. With

EDR, they can reregister on Election

Day and cast a ballot. EDR is cost-

effective and easier for elections offi-

cials to administer than provisional

ballots and may be no more expen-

sive to administer in EDR states than

elsewhere. Non-EDR states are also

far more likely to distribute large

numbers of provisional ballots.

According to Wisconsin’s elections

director, his state’s ability to avoid

provisional balloting “alone makes

EDR worthwhile.”

After an election, officials must

spend extra time and effort to comb

voter registration records and deter-

mine whether a provisional voter

actually registered and whether her

ballot should be counted. This

process can take days or weeks.

EDR spares election officials from

these efforts and ensures that vot-

ers can cast ballots that will be

counted. EDR does not result in

individual voter fraud. Election offi-

cials in EDR states are as vigilant

as election officials elsewhere

about safeguarding against fraud.

In fact, a bipartisan team of con-

sultants to the Election Assistance

Commission reported widespread

agreement that very little evidence

existed of voter impersonation at

the polls. Election officials in EDR

states are confident of the security

of their systems.

Election Day Registration has

assisted millions of voters in cast-

ing valid ballots and participating

in the democratic process. The

2006 midterm election was another

illustration of EDR’s potential.

Momentum around EDR continues

to grow. Twenty-one states were

considering EDR proposals as the

2006 legislative sessions ended.

Campaigns are under way in many

states in 2007, including Connec-

ticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachu-

setts, Michigan, Nebraska, New

Jersey, New York, New Mexico,

North Carolina, Oregon, and

Vermont. Interest is developing in

Congress as well. States can reduce

unnecessary barriers to participa-

tion and empower their residents in

the run-up to the 2008 presidential

election by adopting Election Day

Registration.

National Civ ic Review DOI : 10.1002/ncr Summer 2007