By Eve Robert
Published April 21st 2009
[PDF-248 KB]
The United States is one of the few democracies in the world where the government does not take any responsibility in registering its citizens. This one-of-a-kind, self-initiated voter registration process acts as a major barrier to voter turnout and leads to often-inaccurate voter rolls.
In contrast, the international norm is a process of government-mandated automatic voter registration of every citizen who reaches voting age. This report explores how other major well-established democracies (Canada, Australia, Sweden, Italy, New Zealand and others) concretely manage to build comprehensive, inclusive, accurate voting rolls that leave no voters behind while ensuring a high level of privacy. As it turns out, many of these “best practices,” could easily be implemented in the U.S. context to modernize our voter registration system.
This report takes a closer look at youth voter registration practices. Young voters are difficult to register; yet as first-time voters, their political participation is particularly crucial. Various strategies, in the U.S. and abroad, have been successfully implemented to target this particular segment of the population. The best approach actually seems to be the creation of a provisional list (16-year-old pre-registration), combined with high school-based registration drives and birthday card programs for 17 and 18 year olds.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.