We all need automatic voter registration

If we truly live in a democracy, voting should be easily accessible to each eligible citizen. The barriers preventing jail inmates from voting are only the tip of the iceberg of our flawed voter registration system.

Twenty percent of eligible residents are not registered to vote, and an additional estimated 13% of existing registration records are invalid due to inaccuracies. You can become ineligible to vote for simply moving and forgetting to re-register at your new address.

Enacting automatic voter registration (AVR) in Washington is one solution to this problem. AVR is a modernized registration system that automatically registers eligible voters and updates registration information based on existing government records. Automatic voter registration would enhance our elections by:

▪  Adding thousands of eligible voters to the rolls,

▪  Boosting turnout by making voting more convenient and accessible,

▪  Removing invalid registrations from the rolls, thus decreasing the risk of voter fraud, and

▪  Saving taxpayers money in the process.

Five states have already signed AVR into law, including our west coast neighbors Oregon and California. We should follow in their footsteps to enact a more efficient and secure system that ensures each eligible citizen’s voice is heard.

This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 11:20 AM with the headline "We all need automatic voter registration."