Michigan took a leap forward into the modern era by announcing new voter registration policies on National Voter Registration Day.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced today that automatic voter registration has officially launched in Michigan and online voter registration will be available following the November 2019 election.

“Making voter registration automatic for eligible citizens means more Michigan residents will have access to participating in our democracy,” Benson said in a release. “I look forward to this both strengthening our democracy and ultimately helping transactions move more quickly in branch offices by eliminating extra paperwork.”

Michigan joins 17 other states and the District of Columbia in enacting automatic voter registration.

Automatic voter registration requires Secretary of State branch office staff to ensure that when Michigan citizens apply for or update their driver’s license or personal ID cards, they automatically are registered to vote unless they are ineligible or don’t want to be registered.

Michigan began implementing automatic voter registration for driver’s license and personal ID transactions in person and online Sept. 9.

Preliminary data from the Secretary of State suggests automatic voter registration already is increasing voter registration in Michigan.

Through the first two weeks of implementation, Michigan processed 46,527 registration transactions, an average of 4,653 per business day. By comparison, in the first two full weeks of September 2017, Michigan processed 40,022 transactions, or about 4,002 per business day.

The Department of State will be adding automatic voter registration for mail-based transactions in the coming months.

In the November 2018 election, Michigan voters approved the Promote the Vote constitutional amendment, which contained measures to make voting more accessible and secure.

Driver’s license and personal ID card applications now have an “opt-out” box, which an eligible applicant must check if he or she doesn’t want to be registered to vote.

After the November 2019 election, the online portal will be launched in which eligible citizens can register to vote at any time.