Oregon lets it ride

Driven to vote

NOT since 2000 has a lower share of the American electorate turned out to vote in a presidential election. That may be because of voters’ lack of enthusiasm for either candidate. But many suspect restrictive laws also played a part. Since 2012 several states have passed laws requiring prospective voters to show state-issued identification at the polls—documents which poorer and minority voters, who mostly lean Democratic, are less likely to possess.

Oregon bucks this trend. This year’s election was the first since its legislature passed the Oregon Motor Voter Act in March 2015. Federal law already allows citizens to register to vote at their local motor-vehicle department. Oregon’s law makes this process automatic: whenever eligible citizens apply for, renew, or replace an Oregon driving licence, permit or ID card, they are registered to vote. Those who do not choose a particular party are considered unaffiliated; Oregonians who do not wish to be registered at all are given 21 days to opt out of the programme.

Oregon was one of just two states, along with Connecticut, that had such measures in...Continue reading

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