Some people
are saying that Jeb Bush could gain the nomination to run under the Republican
Party banner, while former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
will get the nod from the Democratic Party. None of this has been officially
decided yet, but that hasn't stopped Clinton from leaping onto the political
stage with a few bold statements.
In early
June of this year, Hillary Clinton delivered
a speech in Texas
calling for voting law reform in the United States. While the potential
presidential candidate touched on several different points in her talk, the one
that is getting the most attention is the call for all Americans to be
automatically registered to vote when they turn 18 years of age.
This would
represent a major effort to encourage voter turnout among the American
electorate. While it may be true that this represents just
a political gambit
on the part of Clinton in an effort to get votes, debating the notion of
automatic and universal voter registration is a conversation that holds merit.
Indeed, this could add as many as 50 million Americans to the voter rolls.
It is
practically impossible for this voter reform to take place before the elections
in November 2016, but the wheels could be put in motion for the mid-term
elections of 2018 or possibly the next Presidential election in 2020.
The point
of automatic and universal voter registration – ideally using an online or
electronic voter registration system that is faster, more accurate and more
efficient than manually completing and submitting a paper form – is inclusion,
particularly improving access among the impoverished and the disenfranchised.
By making it easier to vote and by addressing issues of voter registration, voter
turnout in America
would presumably improve too. And improved voter turnout makes for a better and
more representative democracy.
Another
reform that Hillary Clinton suggests is to extend the voting period to 20 days,
providing easier access and better convenience for voters to exercise their
right to franchise. This could help to reduce or even eliminate some of the
remarkably long lines that have plagued previous election days, but it may or
may not be effective in raising voter turnout.
Michael Waldman of Politico.com says that the
current “ramshackle voter registration system” in the United States
“disenfranchises more people by accident than even the harshest new laws do on
purpose.” A new system of automatic and electronic voter registration would
practically eliminate the “piles of paper records” that plague the current
system, minimizing typos and keeping voter rolls more up to date.
If the nation moves to hold more
conversations regarding automatic voter registration and how it can improve
voter turnout, then the American democracy could be moving in the right
direction.
