Jonah Goldman, Director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, testified before the Senate Rules Committee about the effects of our flawed voter registration system on the 2008 election. The testimony submitted by Goldman drew from our preliminary report which we released today – Election Protection 2008: Helping Voters Today, Modernizing the System for Tomorrow. The report is based on information gathered by Election Protection during the past election cycle, as Election Protection provided assistance to more than ½ a million voters through our 866-OUR-VOTE voter services hotline, our interactive web tools, and our extensive field programs. Registration issues totaled more than one third of the problems reported to Election Protection throughout the 2008 cycle.
As Goldman’s testimony states, our registration system is archaic and badly in need of modernization. Our voter registration system does more than inconvenience and sometimes disenfranchise voters. According to Goldman:
As governments at all levels fight to stretch every penny, this Congress has recognized that streamlining essential processes is a critical component of moving forward in this new economy. Just as our health care system is stuck in the past, wasting vast sums of money sustaining an antiquated paper based system that puts patients at risk, counties and states across the country are wasting millions of dollars every election cycle administering an outdated and expensive paper based voter registration system that puts our electoral infrastructure at risk. Modernizing the registration system will not only improve the foundation of our democracy, it will allow communities to reinvest these resources in critical functions like keeping more teachers in the classroom and more cops on the street.
Click here to read Election Protection 2008: Helping Voters Today, Modernizing the System for Tomorrow.
Click here to read Jonah’s testimony.
The New York Times and Politico also covered Chairman Schumer’s hearing.
Click here to read Ian Urbina’s article in the Times, “Hurdles to Voting Persisted in 2008.”
Click here to read Politico’s coverage, “Schumer launches voter fraud probe.”
