From the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign:
For anyone interested in increasing voter turnout, two recent studies agree there is a proven strategy – election day registration.
Both reports – one done by electionline.org and the other by the national group Demos – document 10% to 12% higher turnout in states that have EDR (Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming) compared to states that don't allow eligible voters to register on the day of the election.
On the other hand, academic research done by scholars at Rutgers and Ohio State universities shows that making voters jump through additional hoops such as requiring them to show photo ID in order to cast a ballot is a sure way to suppress turnout, as reported by the New York Times.
States that imposed such identification requirements on voters reduced turnout at the polls in the 2004 presidential election by about 3%, and by two to three times as much for racial or ethnic minorities, the study concluded.
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Are you an Oshkosh resident not yet registered to vote? Information on how to register can be found here (scroll down). More information can be found on the State Elections Board site.
1 comment:
Tony,
I looked through the study and while I am 110% for Same Day Registration I was not convinced by their study. Sadly only 6 states, all northern, most progressive, with SDR compared against the rest of the nation.
For the best of me I could not figure if their increased voters were total potential voters or just the SDR voters. I suspect even without SDR many of the 6 would be toward the top of the voter participation list. There is a culture and history with many of these states for greater voter participation.
After the 2006 election I looked at Madison and Milwaukee's voter participation. I looked at potential voters (those over 18) and those who actually voted. In Madison, about 60% of potential voters voted, whereas in Milwaukee less than 18%. Dane had over 50,000 more votes than Milwaukee County. Certainly SDR is not the cure all when one of our cities are as low as 18%.
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