Minnesota prides itself in its citizens taking to the polls, leading the nation with a 77.7 percent voter turnout in the 2004 presidential election and still leading the nation with an off-year turnout in 2006 of 59.5 percent. Minnesota also makes it relatively easy to vote, allowing registering to vote on Election Day.
Newly elected Secretary of State Mark Ritchie wants to continue that high mark by going a step further -- allowing auto-matic registration to vote if a Minnesotan has a driver's license or a state ID card. That, however, is one step too far.
Granting automatic voting status to drivers, something no other state allows, is estimated to add 500,000 to Minnesota's registered voter lists. While Ritchie guarantees that a system can be devised that will flush out those not eligible to vote -- such as non-citizens or felons who haven't had their civil rights restored -- the process leaves the door open to such fraud and actually guarantees the need for more workers to double-check all the registrations.
Ritchie, a DFLer, is taking a populist view to voting, that all who are eligible to vote have no barriers preventing them from doing so, right up until the polls close. While admirable, such flexibility can go too far.
On the other hand, Republicans have strived to make voting tougher, seeking to pass legislation that each voter must show an official photo ID to vote, and other security measures.
ADVERTISEMENT
Minnesota already provides forms to register to vote readily available, such as with tax forms, and when people renew their driver's licenses. There are very few, if any, barriers that prevent people from registering to vote -- even on Election Day itself.
Perhaps our biggest concern with automatic registration is really not one of opening the process more to the possibility of fraud. It's with the idea of automatic registration.
In our participatory democracy, we ask much of our citizens in shaping a way of life that guarantees, as the Declaration of Independence states, the inalienable rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." To do so, one must take an active role and want to vote. To be an ac-tive citizen in the process, one must take the first step in registering to vote; it is not something that should lightly be endowed automatically whether used or not.
We need to remove as many barriers as possible that prevent people from registering and voting, but making it automatic whether they want it or not just because they pass a driver's test?
No, exercising the right to vote must first start with the desire to participate.
