The are various types of barriers facing voters including photo ID requirements, voting booth availability, the flexibility of poll hours, and the availability of time off from work with pay for voting. Some states even have financial penalties for the violation of deadlines or rules related to registration lists. Online voter registration, absentee voting, and early voting are some policies that clearly are shown to ease voting. In a substantial new effort in Louisiana to remedy that situation, the article below by Wallis Watkins for New Orleans Public Radio comes highly recommended for Democracy Chronicles readers:

Louisiana Senator Troy Carter (D-New Orleans) has proposed a bill that would automatically register people to vote when they apply for a driver’s license. “Under current law a person has the ability to opt-in: to check the box to determine whether they want to become a registered voter at the point of getting their driver’s license or renewing it,” Carter says.

His bill would do the opposite. “You have to opt out if you don’t want to be registered.” Senator Carter calls it an opportunity to increase voter participation. But the Secretary of State’s office – which is responsible for registering voters – says that’s not a problem that needs fixing. According to 2018 numbers, 88% of eligible voters in Louisiana were registered. Joe Salter is with the Secretary of State’s office. “What we need help with – and other states do as well – is to get people to participate, to actually go vote,” Salter says.

Full article found here.