Let’s End the Embarrassment of Low Voting Rates

For the last 30 years, there’s been a steady decline in voter participation in California. Only one in four eligible voters went to the polls in this year’s March primary. This is an embarrassment to our state. We must do more to protect the integrity of the election system and encourage every eligible citizen to vote.

One of the best ways to do that would be to approve a measure on the November ballot--Proposition 52--that would allow same-day voter registration. As has been shown in other states, this is a proven way to increase voter participation.

Passage of Proposition 52 would allow otherwise eligible voters to register on election day if they had a California driver’s license or two valid forms of identification to ensure they were voting at the correct polling place. The initiative includes enhanced election safeguards and strict new penalties against voter fraud. These reforms, taken together, would increase voter confidence that our election system was both inclusive and secure.

Proposition 52’s most significant safeguard is the requirement that voters registering on election day must show either a California driver’s license or two pieces of identification from a list approved by the California secretary of state. Currently, no identification is required to register or to vote.

Opponents of this common-sense reform are distorting the truth about the measure. They say it would encourage voter fraud when, rather, it contains many safeguards against fraud. And they are using other excuses, such as “less informed people will vote,” in a cynical attempt to limit legally eligible citizens from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

These same scare tactics and claims were made about campaign finance reform, absentee voting and so-called “motor voter” registration (the federal mandate for voter registration forms to be freely available at all government offices, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and City Hall)--all sensible reforms that have improved the system for voters.

Proposition 52 should not be about politics. It deserves the support of everyone because it would strengthen democracy by increasing turnout among Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.

We need this reform because many voters do not tune in to an election until the final weeks of the campaign. Some are unable to cast ballots because they didn’t remember to fill out a registration form in time, and some because they moved and didn’t realize they had to re-register. Others are informed, involved Californians who lacked the time or opportunity to focus on their registration status. These are not valid reasons to deny an eligible citizen’s right to vote.

Even the strongest democracy can’t thrive if more of its citizens don’t vote. Proposition 52 would breathe new life into our electoral system. When more people vote, we build stronger communities, a healthier state and a more responsive government.

There are two sides to this debate--those who value inclusion and expanded democracy and those who want to limit the number of people who are allowed to vote. Californians who value inclusion, democracy and bipartisanship should support the expansion of the electorate through the reforms contained in Proposition 52.