NACo | Bill aims to modernize voter registration

Voting reform advocates — along with many in Congress — believe that the nation’s current voter registration policies are out-of-date, inaccurate and costly. These inefficiencies, they argue, can lead to voter disenfranchisement.

However, even well-intentioned efforts to modernize the voter registration process are countered by claims that doing so will open the door for increased voter fraud and impose an impractical, one-size-fits-all unfunded mandate on election officials across the country. These conflicting positions were evident at the Oct. 21 hearing before the House Subcommittee on Elections that focused much of its attention on the Voter Registration Act of 2009 (H.R. 1719)...