California moves closer to online voter registration
Californians are a bit closer to being able to register to vote online, rather than fill out a paper form.
The state Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee approved on a party line vote (3-2) legislation that would allow citizens to register to vote via their county’s election office website.
Several other states already offer online registration, yet California has lagged behind awaiting implementation of the statewide online database system known as VoteCal, which has been delayed until at least 2015.
SB 397, authored by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, also puts into place greater safeguards to fraud than the current paper registration process.
Under SB 397, citizens would input their voter information online and the county elections office would use the voter’s signature from the Department of Motor Vehicles to verify authenticity. That signature could be matched against the voter’s signature at the polling place. Currently, signatures at the polling place are only compared to the paper registration signature, which potentially allows for greater occurrences of fraud, says Mr. Yee.
“In the 21st century, especially here in California, it is long overdue to have online voter registration,” saysw Mr. Yee. “SB 397 will not only help protect the integrity of the vote, but will allow many more individuals the opportunity to register and participate in our democracy.”
By using online registration, the voter would enter their own information helping to eliminate spelling errors or an election office being unable to read the paper registration. The new system will also save time and money on data entry by election clerks, supporters say.
They point to Arizona, where, after it implemented online voter registration, some counties saw their costs decrease from 83 cents per registration to 3 cents per registration.
If Mr. Yee’s bill is approved by full Legislature and signed into law, it would allow counties to begin using online voter registration for the 2012 Presidential Primary and General Election. Paper registration would still be available.