Background on Same-Day
Registration
Sobering Facts
- More than half of the adults in North Carolina
do not participate in elections. The turnout rate averaged 47% of
voting-age adults in presidential elections from 1980 through 2004.
- About 1,000,000 voting-age citizens in North
Carolina are not registered to vote.
- The largest group of potential voters in North Carolina is made up
of 400,000 young people ages 18 to 34.
(350,000 are under age 25.)
- North Carolina ranks among in the worst 12
states in the nation for voter turnout in presidential elections.
- The 6 states with established Same-Day
Registration programs have an average turnout rate of 61% compared to the
51% turnout rate for the other 44 states. (The six states are Minnesota,
Maine, Wisconsin, Idaho, New Hampshire and Wyoming.)
Same-Day
Registration Would Help:
- People who are recent arrivals to the county,
young people, and others who may not be aware of the registration
deadline.
- People whose jobs and family responsibilities
make it difficult to find the time to register or to make it a priority,
but who do want to participate.
- People who live in rural areas, who are
disabled, who lack transportation, or who otherwise find the system
inaccessible and remote.
- People who believe they are registered but who
learn at the polls that their information is not in the voter registration
rolls.
- People who become interested in the election
in the final two or three weeks, which often happens, but by then it’s
after the 25-day cutoff for registering.
How One-Stop,
Same-Day Registration Would Work in NC
- The 25-day cutoff for registering to vote is
kept as is. But a person who misses the deadline can go to an early-voting
location in the county, during the early voting period, and register and vote
all at the same time.
- The person must show evidence of their
identity and their residence and must sign a statement, under penalty of
perjury, that they are a U.S. citizen, are at least 18 years old, and
reside at the address given.
- Contrary to the rhetoric of opponents, the
states with Same Day Registration have no real problems with people
committing fraud. In fact, election
officials in those states say having a person register in person, in front
of an election official at a polling place, is the most reliable,
fraud-free method of voter registration.
Prepared by Democracy North Carolina. Data from U.S. Census, N.C. State
Board of Elections, calls to election officials in Wisconsin, Maine and
Minnesota and to NC Fair Share and other NC groups, 2005.