Ohio can end ACORN-like registration flaps

8:51 PM Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Voter registration has long been a fairly odd, largely American custom.

It is all about letting authorities who run elections know where you live, even though the people who give you your driver’s license already know. As do tax and Social Security authorities and probably many others.

Yet potential voters are required to file more paperwork. Some don’t take the trouble, for whatever reasons. This leads some well motivated and/or politically motivated groups to reach out to them.

What results is registration paperwork that has to be processed by government employees; sometimes there are problems with the paperwork.

Does the word “ACORN” ring a bell? Last year saw a big flap about that well-meaning, but decidedly flawed, operation registering the likes of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.

That’s not as big a problem, since nobody is likely to show up to vote and declare himself to be Mr. Mouse. Moreover, ACORN insisted that it uncovered those who were playing games and reported their abuses.

At any rate, big flap. Lots of anguish. Lots of work.

And it was all largely pointless.

For many years, a lot of people who are knowledgeable about election management have said that the registration process can be eliminated, or at least combined with the voting process. Other states, not to mention other countries, have combined the processes. Their efforts have worked fine.

But this approach has been a tough sell in Ohio.

Now, however, comes along another idea that might be easier to sell, thanks to the arrival of the online age: automatic voter registration.

The idea is that, when the state gets information from you about where you live, in the process of giving you a driver’s license, the information is passed on to election boards, and — voila!— you are registered.

And when you move, and update your license info — voila! — you are re-registered.

That practice wouldn’t get everybody registered, of course, but darn near. And there are other ways to reach most others in the same way: through their interaction with government.

Less hassle for voters. Less government bureaucracy. Fewer fights about how to prevent fraudulent registrations. Less involvement by the likes of ACORN.

The idea hasn’t percolated long in Ohio, which is a problem, given how long it takes here to enact common-sense reforms.

But Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is behind the idea. She has the support of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. That operation has also helped her run a couple of “summits” of election administrators and others after the 2008 election, with the goal of creating consensus on modern reforms.

Several proposals have resulted from the summits about early voting, voter identification, disputed ballots and more. However, automatic voter registration really didn’t get much attention at those sessions.

It deserves attention. Ohio should be eager to take advantage of the easy links between government agencies that result from the digital age. Many in the state want us to be seen as heavily into the new age of technology. Let’s see if the legislature agrees.

— Cox News Service

Share this article