The Daily Beast: “Elections in the U.S. are noted for low rates of voter participation compared to other industrialized countries, and it’s not hard to imagine why: America’s byzantine “self-registration” process for would-be voters has long been an unnecessary barrier to civil participation. While congressional gridlock will likely prevent nationwide AVR from passing this year, states can and must continue to lead the way in the battle for AVR.
Automatic voter registration modernizes the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) passed in 1993. The NVRA required people to be given an opportunity to register to vote when receiving government services. However, it was an opt-in, not an opt-out system, and many states did not fulfill its requirement. AVR changes the way NVRA is implemented to an opt-out, rather than an opt-in system. Behavior psychology studies show that opt-out dramatically increases participation.
Since Oregon successfully adopted AVR in 2014, 23 states and Washington, D.C. have adopted their own AVR systems. Under these systems, eligible voters are added to state rolls through interacting with state offices such as the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and are given a way to opt out if uninterested.
While any AVR system is preferable to the regressive self-registration system, it must still be stressed that not all AVR systems are created equal. Nineteen states operate under front-end AVR systems, where individuals who go to the DMV are given the direct option of whether to decline enrollment in the voter rolls while receiving service.
In contrast, under a back-end registration system, voters are automatically added to the voter rolls after going to the DMV, and are later given the option to opt out after being sent an official document asking them if they want to do so. It is unfortunate that the back-end system is only used by a small minority of states, since it has proven to be a superior system in terms of expanding the electorate, bureaucratic efficiency, and ensuring election security. In particular, activists should look to a recent effort to enact back-end AVR in New Mexico as an example to emulate.”