On its face, voting in Washington is pretty simple. You register — online, by mail or at the DMV — wait for your ballot in the mail and send it back in through the post or one of the drop boxes.

But it still could go a bit smoother in this vote-by-mail state for people whose addresses change regularly — renters and students — or who don’t have addresses at all. All told, an estimated 2 million people in the state who are eligible to vote either do not participate or aren’t registered to do so.

The Washington Voting Justice Coalition, a diverse set of groups tackling issues spanning a range of marginalized groups, organized around a suite of bills that would make registration a part of contacting certain state services. They would also extend the registration period and make same-day registration possible.

And, because of the way the bills are crafted, voter rolls would be more secure, said Spencer Olson, a member of the Washington Voting Justice steering committee. “It’s more efficient, more accurate and more secure as well. That’s a reform,” Olson said.

The first of those — automatic voter registration (AVR) — has passed the House and Senate. The legislature will need to reconcile differences between the two bills.

If approved, would work something like this: A qualified voter applies for an enhanced drivers license, which requires that they show proof of citizenship. They would then be automatically enrolled to vote, unless they opt out.

The AVR system, if approved, would work something like this: A qualified voter applies for an enhanced drivers license, which requires that they show proof of citizenship. They would then be automatically enrolled to vote, unless they opt out. And those who interact with a health benefit exchange could have their voter information forwarded to the Secretary of State for enrollment.

On top of that, most state agencies receive address changes from the Postal Service, the system could update automatically, Olson said.

This would be good news for the democratically inclined renter, who may move around in the city more than a homeowner. People can forget to change their voter registration address until ballots get mailed, potentially too late to register.

RELATED ARTICLE: Automatic voter registration could help homeless people make their voices heard

This is not a hypothetical scenario. Then-mayoral candidate Nikkita Oliver got dragged by Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat for her voting record during the 2017 mayoral election. Westneat posited that because Oliver hadn’t voted consistently during her time in Seattle, she wasn’t sufficiently engaged with the process and didn’t deserve support in her bid for mayor.

Oliver defended herself, saying that she hadn’t had the housing stability to consistently get her ballot — she’d moved too many times.

Members of the coalition would also like to see the voter registration period lengthened. Today, a Washington state resident has to register four weeks prior to election day if registering by mail or online. In-person registration is less restrictive, requiring a person to show up a week prior to the election. The coalition would like to allow people to register as late as election day.

Same-day registration would also clear the path for people experiencing homelessness, said Alison Eisinger, executive director of the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness.

“It would make it possible to register up to and including election day,” Eisinger said. “That would make things a lot more straightforward for a lot of people, but especially for people who are dealing with their own survival and who may not be able to register by the cutoff date.”

The Senate passed a same-day voter registration bill that went to the house.

All told, nine states have passed automatic voter registration laws since Oregon’s in 2015. Another 15 states — including Washington — have introduced legislation to implement the practice in 2018.

“This is part of a growing wave of states that see the benefit,” Olson said.

To see the impact of such a set of laws, look no further than our southern neighbor.

To see the impact of such a set of laws, look no further than our southern neighbor.

On Jan. 1, 2016, Oregon implemented an opt-out system for voter registration. Using the state’s motor vehicle records, 225,000 people eligible but not registered to vote were automatically registered with the state over the course of the year. They then had 21 days to tell officials they didn’t want to participate.

AVR has bipartisan support, including that of Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican.

“We have a sizable group of people who have not chosen to register through the normal routes of online, motor-voter, mail or in-person registration,” Wyman said in a 2016 press release. “We know that some of these potential voters have already given proof of citizenship to the [Department of Licensing] or to the health exchange, and so automatic registration should be allowed for them.”

Opposition to automatic voter registration largely comes from the right side of the political spectrum. Republicans in Oregon largely voted against the measure, citing concerns over voter privacy and fraud.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, published an argument against mandatory registration, arguing that people make the choice not to register and automatically registering them violated their rights.

But the data that author Hans von Spakovsky initially chose to illustrate his point was a little odd.

Von Spakovsky asserted that “lack of registration is not the reason people do not vote,” and went on to cite data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which recorded that of the 146 million people registered in 2008, 15 million did not vote.

“Of those that did not vote,” von Spakovsky writes, “only 6 percent cited registration problems as the reason for not participating.”

Von Spakovsky’s numbers exclude everyone who is not registered to vote, so it makes sense that such a small percentage of registered voters were prevented from casting a ballot because of issues with registration.

He then goes on to list more relevant statistics about people who are not registered because they were not interested in the 2008 election or not involved with politics, a whopping 46 percent of non-registered voters, and raises concerns about the cost of systems that automatically register.

Olson, of the Washington Voting Justice Coalition, does not know how much money the new system would cost, but expects that it could save the state money if it no longer has to produce and process paper applications. Cutting paper forms saved the Delaware State Election Commission $200,000 in reduced labor costs when it began sending voter information from the DMV to election officials electronically, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Ashley Archibald is a Staff Reporter covering local government, policy and equity. Have a story idea? She can be can reached at ashleya (at) realchangenews (dot) org. Twitter @AshleyA_RC

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