Dan DeRosa of the Community Voters Project walks down Smithfield Street in 2012 looking for people to register to vote.HARRISBURG — Voters in Pennsylvania in 2016 will have one tool that wasn’t available to them in 2012 — online voter registration.
Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled online voter registration in August, and since then more than 57,000 people statewide have registered to vote or updated an existing registration. The majority of online registration users — about 60 percent — are new registrations, according to state data.
The Department of State, which oversees elections in Pennsylvania, called the digital upgrade “the most significant election reform enacted in Pennsylvania in decades.”
Pennsylvania has joined approximately two dozen other states that allow voters to register online. The change is expected to save money for counties and result in more accurate voter rolls, because there will be less data entry from hand-written paper forms.
While it was rolled out last year, online voter registration is expected to be particularly helpful this year. A flood of last-minute voter registration forms typically hit counties just before the deadline to register to vote in a presidential election. While online voter registration doesn’t eliminate paper forms, it is expected to partially ease that crunch for voters and county elections officials alike, said Wanda Murren, spokeswoman for the Department of State.
“It’s not just that the registration is more convenient. It will make the poll books more accurate, and we believe it will cut down on the number of provisional ballots,” she said.
“It all seems to be running smoothly, and it’s been helpful to us in a couple ways,” said Executive Director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania Doug Hill. The online tool makes sure all the fields a voter has to enter are filled in, so they don’t have to be contacted again if they forget to fill in some information, Mr. Hill said.
“It does expedite the process and improve the accuracy of the process,” he said. “It also gets around legibility issues” of bad handwriting on paper forms.
Suzanne Almeida, executive director of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, said her organization is hoping to use the tool to reach younger voters this year. “Sending them a link is a lot easier than mailing a form and waiting for it to come back and then following up. So we are really excited about this,” she said.
Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, who had initially threatened litigation over the governor’s implementation of online voter registration, could not be reached for comment.
The change to allow for online registration is a marked difference from 2012, which was roiled by controversy over a voter ID law.
The law had passed the Republican-controlled Legislature in March 2012 without a single Democratic vote and was signed into law by then- Gov. Tom Corbett. Opponents charged it could keep those more likely to not have photo identification — the elderly, the poor and minorities — from being able to exercise their right to vote.
The law, which was one of several voter ID laws passed in various states, received national attention ahead of the 2012 election. A court challenge essentially extended a transition period for the law through the November election, so poll workers asked for ID but voters were allowed to vote regardless. The issue was back in the courts again following the presidential election.
In 2014, Mr. Corbett said he wouldn’t appeal a Commonwealth Court decision striking down the controversial law. Judge Bernard McGinley had said the law “unreasonably burdens the right to vote” and threatened a fundamental right of hundreds of thousands of qualified voters.
First-time voters still must show identification at the polls, though a number of non-photo IDs that include a name and address are considered acceptable, according to the Department of State.
You can register to vote or learn more information at votespa.com. The deadline to register for April primary is March 28.
Dan DeRosa of the Community Voters Project walks down Smithfield Street in 2012 looking for people to register to vote.
HARRISBURG — Voters in Pennsylvania in 2016 will have one tool that wasn’t available to them in 2012 — online voter registration.
Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled online voter registration in August, and since then more than 57,000 people statewide have registered to vote or updated an existing registration. The majority of online registration users — about 60 percent — are new registrations, according to state data.
The Department of State, which oversees elections in Pennsylvania, called the digital upgrade “the most significant election reform enacted in Pennsylvania in decades.”
Pennsylvania has joined approximately two dozen other states that allow voters to register online. The change is expected to save money for counties and result in more accurate voter rolls, because there will be less data entry from hand-written paper forms.
While it was rolled out last year, online voter registration is expected to be particularly helpful this year. A flood of last-minute voter registration forms typically hit counties just before the deadline to register to vote in a presidential election. While online voter registration doesn’t eliminate paper forms, it is expected to partially ease that crunch for voters and county elections officials alike, said Wanda Murren, spokeswoman for the Department of State.
“It’s not just that the registration is more convenient. It will make the poll books more accurate, and we believe it will cut down on the number of provisional ballots,” she said.
“It all seems to be running smoothly, and it’s been helpful to us in a couple ways,” said Executive Director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania Doug Hill. The online tool makes sure all the fields a voter has to enter are filled in, so they don’t have to be contacted again if they forget to fill in some information, Mr. Hill said.
“It does expedite the process and improve the accuracy of the process,” he said. “It also gets around legibility issues” of bad handwriting on paper forms.
Suzanne Almeida, executive director of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, said her organization is hoping to use the tool to reach younger voters this year. “Sending them a link is a lot easier than mailing a form and waiting for it to come back and then following up. So we are really excited about this,” she said.
Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, who had initially threatened litigation over the governor’s implementation of online voter registration, could not be reached for comment.
The change to allow for online registration is a marked difference from 2012, which was roiled by controversy over a voter ID law.
The law had passed the Republican-controlled Legislature in March 2012 without a single Democratic vote and was signed into law by then- Gov. Tom Corbett. Opponents charged it could keep those more likely to not have photo identification — the elderly, the poor and minorities — from being able to exercise their right to vote.
The law, which was one of several voter ID laws passed in various states, received national attention ahead of the 2012 election. A court challenge essentially extended a transition period for the law through the November election, so poll workers asked for ID but voters were allowed to vote regardless. The issue was back in the courts again following the presidential election.
In 2014, Mr. Corbett said he wouldn’t appeal a Commonwealth Court decision striking down the controversial law. Judge Bernard McGinley had said the law “unreasonably burdens the right to vote” and threatened a fundamental right of hundreds of thousands of qualified voters.
First-time voters still must show identification at the polls, though a number of non-photo IDs that include a name and address are considered acceptable, according to the Department of State.
You can register to vote or learn more information at votespa.com. The deadline to register for April primary is March 28.
Post Gazette News
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2016/01/17/Online-voter-registration-debuts/stories/201601170013
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