November election highlights need for registration reform

According to the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network, an estimated three million Americans were turned away or forced to vote provisionally due to a registration problem on Election Day. In addition, only 70-75% of US eligible voters are registered.  That is the lowest registration rate by far among advanced democracies, almost all of which use a form of automatic voter registration.  Even in Iraq voters can fix a registration problem on Election Day and vote.

2008 saw many registration problems, the organization said. On one hand, third party nonprofits over zealously turned in duplicate or flawed registrations.  On the other, partisan election officials attempted to illegally drop tens of thousands from voter rolls in Colorado, Detroit and other jurisdictions.

NVEN maintains that voter registration is necessary to track voters but has no place as a barrier for any eligible citizen to participate in their democracy and vote.  To learn more, read the Brennan Center's recent overview of Universal Voter Registration.

In the months leading up to Election Day, nonprofits employed unprecedented resources to engage their constituencies in this year's election. These included registering voters, holding candidate forums and distributing state voter guides, seizing the opportunity to educate and commit their communities to future successful civic participation.

For example, 70 volunteers and employees of Universal Health Care Foundation of Meriden, Conn., stood outside polls on Nov. 4 to recruit activists for universal health care. "We're targeting people who are engaged, who want to have an effect on policies and issues," said Janet Davenport, a spokeswoman for the nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation.  Read more.

In addition, nonprofits like Kids Voting Hawaii helped children participate. They learned about the democratic process in their social studies classes and cast votes in statewide elections at their schools, setting the stage for future participation.  Read about an Arizona school district's experience.

Finally, tools like the Election Protection Coalition's hotline and website , Twitter's Vote Report, Harvard's myfairelection.com and YouTube's Video Your Vote campaign, voters were able to take complaints to the Internet this year and make Nov. 4, 2008, the most documented Election Day in American history.  Read more.