Oregon became the first state in the nation to allow automatic voter registration Monday, bringing with it a slew of concerns over potential voter fraud and the security of personal information.
Gov. Kate Brown signed a new bill that puts the burden of registration on the state instead of voters.
Under the legislation, every adult citizen in Oregon who has interacted with the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division since 2013 but hasn’t registered to vote will now be added to the rolls if eligible. People eligible to vote will get a postcard saying they’ve been registered and have three weeks to opt out. They’ll be automatically registered as unaffiliated but can select a political party from the postcard and return it to election officials through the mail.
The measure is expected to add about 300,000 new voters to the rolls.
“It just changes expectations for who’s responsible for making elections work,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. “In every other state it’s the responsibility for the voters to make sure it happens.”
Oregon has always been a leader in voting. Seventeen years ago Oregon was also the first state to hold all elections with mail-in ballots.
The state already has one of the highest voter registration rates in the nation – 73 percent of Oregonians were registered to vote and 70 percent of them cast ballots during the 2014 general election.
“Oregon is a true leader in accessibility to voting and I challenge every other state in this nation to examine their policies and find ways to ensure there are as few barriers as possible in the way of the citizen’s right to vote,” Brown said.
But Oregon’s Republican leaders said that registering to vote isn’t a “barrier,” it’s a protection. They voiced worry about potential voter fraud, the cost of implementing the measure, and whether the DMV can ensure personal information remains secure.
The DMV has information like age, residential information, signature and citizenship status, that will now be transferred to the secretary of state, who will then automatically update registration information. They argue that there might not be enough security in this process.
“Simply because it makes us unique or makes us first does not necessarily mean that it actually improves on what we’re doing,” said state Sen. Jackie Winters, a Republican from Salem.
When it came up for a vote in the state Senate last week, all Republicans and one Democrat voted against it. The Democrats hold a 18-12 advantage in the Senate so the bill easily passed.
