state house

Alabama State House. (Julie Bennett photo/jbennett@al.com)

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill. (Submitted photo)

A bill proposing to combine voter registration with acquiring a driver's license has been introduced in the state legislature but it does not have the backing of Alabama's top elections official.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, called for automatic voter registration for those who successfully apply for or renew their driver's license. A first-in-the-nation law similar to Hall's bill was passed in Oregon last year and resulted in a spike in voter registration.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, however, said increased voter registration does not necessarily translate into voter participation.

"We have a published and well publicized legislative agenda for 2016," Merrill said in a statement to AL.com. "(Hall's bill) is not on our agenda.

"We are supportive of any legislation that takes steps towards encouraging people to be more involved in the electoral process. However, no empirical data has been introduced to me that indicates automatic registration increases voter participation."

Hall did not respond to numerous requests for comment. No action has been taken on the bill since it was introduced on Feb. 9 and assigned to the Constitution, Campaigns and Elections committee in the House.

State Rep. Mary Moore

State Rep. Laura Hall

State Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, filed a bill almost identical to Hall's on Feb. 18. Hall is among 19 Democratic co-sponsors of Moore's bill.

"I'm glad Laura introduced the bill," said Jess Brown, a political science professor at Athens State University and a close observer of state and national politics. "I hope it generates some discussion. But the air will be sucked out of my lungs and my knees will buckle if a Republican legislature so much as lets the bill out of committee."

The reason is likely won't pass, Brown said, is that Republicans - who hold a super-majority in the State House - has traditionally been the political party more reluctant to expand voter pools.

Athens State University political scientist professor Jess Brown.

"In the 19th century politics of the United States, the Republican Party wanted to expand suffrage," Brown said. "They felt they would benefit from African-American voting. Largely in the 20th century and especially since World War II, the Republican Party has essentially become a party that is against the expansion of the suffrage. And the Democratic Party has a political incentive to expand voting opportunities. That's just the politics."

Beneficiaries of automatic voter registration, Brown said, would be poorer citizens who may be more likely to vote Democratic.

Either way, Brown said that studies have indicated that automatic voter registration would not alter the outcome of elections.

The bill arrives months after voter registration in Alabama became a national story when Gov. Robert Bentley, citing a shortfall in state funding, announced the closing of 31 driver's license offices across the state - most in rural parts of south Alabama known as the Black Belt.

Though Merrill insisted at the time that voter registration would not be compromised by the closings, the issue garnered such attention that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made a statement condemning the closings.

"Just a few years ago, Alabama passed a law requiring citizens to have a photo ID to vote," Clinton said in a statement in October days after Bentley announcement. "Now they're shutting down places where people get those photo IDs. This is only going to make it harder for people to vote."

In wake of the closings, though not related, the U.S. Department of Justice in October threatened a lawsuit against the state for claims that the state failed to provide proper voter registration opportunities when people applied for or renewed driver's licenses - a violation of what's known as the "motor voter" provision in the National Voter Registration Act.

The state and the DOJ announced a month later that a memorandum of understanding had been reached, though that MOU did not address the closing of the driver's license offices. By that point, however, Bentley had re-opened the offices one day a month.

According to Section 5 of the NVRA, each state's motor vehicle driver's license application and renewals "shall serve as an application for voter registration with respect to elections for federal office."

Oregon last year became the first state to pass an automatic voter registration law through the issuance of a driver's license. The state saw an increase of 4,300 registered voters in the first month it went into effect - about twice as many registrations as normal.

California has also passed a similar law last year that is now in effect but the new voter registration process will not be available until later this year, according to The Los Angeles Times. Louisiana also approved a similar bill last year.

In New Jersey, the Democratic-controlled state legislature passed a automatic voter bill but it was vetoed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

And in Vermont on Tuesday, House members voted without dissent in favor of the bill.

Overall, the governing bodies of 15 states are considering automatic voter registration bills in 2016, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.