Can California Improve Voter Turnout with Fewer Polling Places?
Voters at polling station on Election Day 2012 in Ventura County, California Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com
Other states in various stages of voter reform include Vermont, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Ranked 43rd nationally for voter turnout in 2014, California lawmakers will consider legislation that would mandate mail-in ballots for everyone registered to vote and replacing neighborhood polling places with fewer, larger early-voting centers.
The model pulls from reformed voting systems in the state of Colorado and San Diego County and lets voters cast ballots at any center in their county 10 days before Election Day.
If passed, counties will still have the choice of opting in when the law goes into effect in 2018, though state Democrats project it to be a money-saver.
“This is an opportunity to say: ‘We as a state value people voting,’” said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez at the news conference announcing the proposal. “What we need to do is break down all barriers.”
Gonzalez pushed the five-year pilot program approved last year in San Diego County, providing mail-in special election ballots to all voters.
Some state Republican leaders said the effort only stands to benefit Democrats, with GOP voter turnout a few percentage points higher, arguing making elections more competitive is a better approach.
The proposal, still a work in progress, is actually an amendment to S.B. 450 and will require voting centers be easily accessible along public transit routes, outreach and possibly drive-through ballot drop boxes.
Election costs dropped 30 percent when Colorado implemented reforms in 2012, and voter turnout went from being 7 percent higher than California’s to 20.7 percent higher.
Also working its way through the legislature is a bill to automatically register eligible voters when they renew their driver’s license—approved by the Assembly and slated to be heard by the Senate.
And California isn’t the only state considering voting reforms.
Last week, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed same-day voter registration into law effective 2017. Previously, Vermonters could register up until the Wednesday before Election Day, and the state expects to see an 8- to 12-percent increase in voter participation.
“That’s the key is every eligible person should have the ability to cast a ballot regardless of whether they’re registered or not and not everyone has the opportunity,” Secretary of State Jim Condos said, according to Connecticut Public Radio. “It’s not always easy to get to a point where you have to register.”
Delaware’s General Assembly is working on similar legislation, where the state currently mandates voters be registered three weeks before Election Day. A Senate bill would reinstate ex-offenders’ right to vote without requiring them to pay off all their fines and court costs.
A bill to implement same-day voter registration in Pennsylvania is currently sitting in the state House’s State Government Committee awaiting action. A total of 10 states have same-day registration with three more working on implementation.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is more concerned with passing online voter registration first, as a cost-saving measure, and allowing early voting, no excuse absentee voting and same-day registration later.
The state Senate approved online voter registration unanimously in the past, but the House never took it up.
Wolf “is committed to implementing commonsense, secure election reforms” encouraging participation, spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan told New Castle News.
(Photo by Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com)
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