This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., noted the Senate will hold a briefing regarding Russian interference in the 2016 race for the White House. The discussion is welcome as the election spurred partisan bickering and public mistrust in the U.S. electoral system.
It’s not the first time the results of presidential elections have been shrouded in controversy in recent decades. Who could forget the 2000 presidential election, with its hanging and dimpled chads, which was ultimately settled by the Supreme Court?
Both examples illustrate the need to improve and streamline election security and credibility. Too often, reform efforts have focused on Election Day security measures. But these policies have proven politically contentious and insufficient to meet modern challenges. We need a new approach.
After the 2000 election, Congress broke its tradition of leaving election legislation to the states. The result was the Help America Vote Act or HAVA. In addition to addressing many of the problems revealed in the Florida election recount, Republicans also successfully pushed for two policies strengthening election security to be included in HAVA.
One was requiring voters to affirm U.S. citizenship voter on registration cards. The second was to require all states to have a minimum identification requirement for most first-time voters. These important provisions, while narrow in scope, encouraged only eligible American voters to cast their ballots, while blocking nefarious actors from tainting the outcome.
Unfortunately, ever since HAVA’s passage, we have been arguing about identification requirements and how best to ensure that noncitizens don’t vote. Clearly, we need a fresh strategy to secure our elections that both the Left and Right can embrace.
One such approach is what I call Automated Verification and Registration.
Automated Verification and Registration updates voter rolls continuously, working to prevent illegal voting before anyone even reaches the ballot box. Unlike the current system, Automated Verification and Registration would update the list of eligible voters by using information that is already provided to state and local governments. This includes data such as age, address, and other relevant information necessary to determine where and when someone is eligible to vote.
Most voters think that this already happens. It doesn’t, but it can and should.
According to the Pew Center on the States, roughly one-eighth of all voter registrations nationwide are out of date or inaccurate. That isn’t surprising. In a country of more than 325 million people, tracing every birth, 18th birthday, move, and death is a herculean challenge. And to exacerbate the problem, updating voter rolls is often not a priority as governments generally have more immediate concerns, such as the economy, healthcare, and crime.
Fortunately, the framework to improve the accuracy of voter rolls is already in place in some areas and getting stronger every year. Over one-third of all Americans now live in states that have adopted Automated Verification and Registration.
Another important resource is the Electronic Registration Information Center, which compares voter information among participating states and helps prevent errors like double registrations or registration by ineligible voters who live in other states. Twenty-five states plus the District of Columbia already take advantage of the system.
The Electronic Registration Information Center and Automated Verification and Registration work hand-in-hand by seamlessly tracking and updating voter registrations across the country. As of 2019, the Electronic Registration Information Center had identified more than 2.5 million cross-state movers, almost 8 million in-state updates, more than 320,000 in-state double registrations, and more than 240,000 deceased voters.
Automated Verification and Registration and the Electronic Registration Information Center are conservative election security policies. They result in more accurate voter lists, while saving money by cutting bureaucratic waste. That’s the very definition of conservative reform. Unlike other conservative election reforms, Automated Verification and Registration and the Electronic Registration Information Center are also embraced by those on the Left, which means that they can be adopted by red, blue, and purple states alike.
Elections are key to what makes America great. That’s why Republicans have fought so long and hard to ensure elections are conducted securely and honestly. Many Republican states have already adopted both Automated Verification and Registration and the Electronic Registration Information Center to bolster election security. It’s time for other states to do the same.
Trey Grayson is the advisory board chair of the Secure Elections Project. He is also the former Kentucky secretary of state and former president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
