In a new strategy to fix elections, iVote—which has previously assisted former United States President Bill Clinton and current President Barack Obama in their election campaigns—has decided to invest up to $10 million in an attempt to make voter registration automatic whenever someone gets a driver license, as reported by the New York Times. However, if the driver’s license is rejected, the registration will be incomplete.
The change is believed to expand upon the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, known as the “motor voter” law, which requires states to provide people the choice of registering to vote when they apply for driver’s licenses or supplementary identification cards. The new laws would make registration automatic during those transactions unless a driver objects to it. The group, called iVote, is quite confident that the laws could bring out millions of new voters who didn’t register when they had the opportunity to do so at motor vehicle departments. Many would be young, poor, or minorities—groups that tend to support Democratic candidates.
“I do think it can be a complete game-changer,” says Jeremy Bird, who ran Obama’s voter turnout effort in 2012 and is leading the group. “It’s definitely countering what we see as a very organized and well-funded effort by the Republican Party across the country to chip away at voting rights.”
A majority of the millions of dollars to be generated by iVote will be invested on advertising, public opinion research, and outreach as part of an education program. iVote’s political arm will pursue and focus towards directing legislation and passing ballot initiatives in states across the country, from Illinois and New York to Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and Ohio.
In California, nearly 6 million people who have driver’s licenses are not registered to vote, said Alex Padilla, the secretary of state and a Democrat. He said the new law, which aims to eliminate that discrepancy, is “good for democracy,” and added, “It’s more effective and efficient.”
Craig T. Smith, who was the political director in Mr. Clinton’s time at The White House and is also advising iVote, said that the legislation to enact automatic voter registration was pending in 17 states. The group is hoping to help push through as many of those bills as possible next year. The group also plans to start a petition drive in Ohio to put automatic registration on the ballot next November. And it is exploring the possibility of ballot measures in Colorado, Florida, and Nevada. “The right to vote has come under siege,” Mr. Smith said. “Part of this is to retake the momentum, to make it easier to vote.”
The effort by iVote is the first major push to counter Republican moves with a legislative strategy to expand voter rights. Pete Giangreco, a top direct mail and media consultant for Mr. Obama’s presidential campaigns, said Republicans opposed automatic registration because they wanted to intimidate Democratic-leaning citizens from casting ballots. “They don’t want people to vote,” Mr. Giangreco said. “They’ve gotten very, very good at using technicalities, at disenfranchising individuals—young, immobile, poor, people of color. And those are people that tend to vote Democratic.”
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