WisPolitics Budget Blog

Election Day Registration

So far, only residents of Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming have access to the wide-reaching benefits of EDR.

Currently, major efforts to enact EDR are underway in legislatures in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York and North Carolina.

In addition, EDR legislation has been introduced in several states, including California, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee and Vermont.

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Election fraud may not be at conspiracy levels in Wisconsin, and it certainly is not an epidemic, but we do have something to show other states; election day registration is a curb against voter fraud.

The six states that provide election day registration enjoyed a higher voter turnout than the national averaging 2004. And contrary to conventional thinking that higher turnout invites voter fraud, those same six states reported fewer irregularities than states with pre-election registration procedures.

The cheaters are dialing-in on the registration drive efforts. And it's all about building, cataloging, and warehousing those registration lists for heavily coercive turn-out practices.

But when every 18 year-old is an eligible and registered voter by virtue of simply appearing at the polls on election day, the registration drives become inefficient for organized campaigns.

As Kenosha Democrats say, you can lead a horse to water, but free smokes will get them out of the bingo hall.