Marc Elias, Guest Observer, Roll Call, 9.15.09

Roll Call’s Guest Observers yesterday were campaign lawyers Marc Elias (Franken 08 recount; Kerry-Edwards campaign) and Trevor Potter (general counsel, 2000 and 2008 McCain presidential campaigns). Here are the key parts their op-ed, “Congress Can Better Voter Registration”:

“We have always worked for opposing candidates, but our common campaign experience has led us to the firm agreement that the inefficiencies of the election administration system require common sense upgrades...

We have formed the Committee to Modernize Voter Registration, a national, bipartisan group of individuals with vast and varied experience in elections...

[We] share a commitment to update the way that we register voters so it is more efficient, costs less, provides adequate safeguards against fraud and ensures that all eligible Americans can participate in the process...

There are two problems [with our current voter registration system]: First, our system is based almost exclusively on paper voter registration forms, and second, too many forms are submitted in the last weeks before voter registration deadlines. The result is a chaotic environment in which election officials are forced to develop complex, costly systems of data entry and quality control to decipher millions of handwritten forms in the lead-up to a major election. Millions of eligible Americans each election cycle are blocked from the polls as a result...

But there is a solution. States should use an automated system to add voters to the registration rolls when they become eligible, and that registration should move with the voters when they change residences. If we do this, we can get rid of the paper, free up resources for state and local governments, provide strict protections against voter registration fraud and eliminate many of the frustrating problems that voters face on election day...

In the area of voter registration, there is a bipartisan chorus calling for reform. Unfortunately, the closer we get to an election, the more likely partisanship will drown out our unified voices on this critical issue. Implementing the reforms will take time, but the moment to act is now."