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.