At activist Rick Hasen’s Election Law Blog, there was a recent post about the coming battle in California over a law that would allow voters to register for elections on the same day they vote.  This means that unregistered voters could show up on election day and vote.  This common sense idea, supported by those who want increased voter participation, is sadly likely to create plenty of controversy in the coming months.

Election law becoming a partisan political game is certainly the most dangerous development of the current era.  The breakdown of the American process for selecting political leadership has led to mismanagement of the country and was arguably the root cause of the financial crisis.  Please join us at DC to work towards the most important project of the current American era: fixing our election system.   Please see my recent article, “Democracy Chronicles Expands: Tell Your Friends!” for more information on joining our organization. Here is an excerpt from the Election Law Blog post:

There’s a parallelism to EDR legislaton and voter id legislation. EDR legislation is favored mostly by Democratic legislators as a way to expand the electorate and especially casual voters who are more likely to vote Democratic (if they actually register and vote). Voter id legislation is favored mostly by Republican legislators as a way to make it harder for those casual voters (likely to vote Democratic) and others to vote. Both laws are motivated, at least in part and at least among some legislators for the partisan motivations. That’s not to say that EDR is a good or bad reform—but rather that legislators consider the partisan consequences when voting on these laws.

Also, take a look at an excerpt from a ThinkProgress article linked to in the Election Law Blog post:

This won’t just benefit slackers. Historically-disenfranchised citizens like minorities and poorer Americans, will particularly benefit from EDR. On average, studies have found that EDR boosts voter turnout by seven percentage points. Common Cause’s Phillip Ung told ThinkProgress he “expects voter turnout to increase by the hundreds of thousands” solely as a result of EDR.

You can find the original ThinkProgress article here.  I thought I might add some background on ThinkProgress, an organization that works for the good guys on these issues. Wikipedia says that, “ThinkProgress is an American political blog that “provide[s] a forum that advances progressive ideas and policies”. It is an outlet of the Center for American Progress.