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Empowering Voters Project: Online Access to Voter Registration Status
Contact the League
of Women Voters for more information
The League of Women Voters of
Massachusetts is encouraging the Secretary of the Commonwealth to implement
regulations that would require that a voter be able to check their voter
registration status online in an adequately confidential manner at least 30 days
before the registration deadline for all elections. Part of making the lists
confidential would entail allowing voters to check only their own information,
not the information of someone else. Allowing voters to know more about their
unique registration and their own voting status would increase voter turnout.
Background
In Massachusetts, only voters in
Boston can currently check their voting status online. To determine their voting
status other voters must contact their local registrar whose phone lines and
personnel are often overwhelmed before an election. Or voters have to check the
posted lists at the registrar’s office, which many voters may not know is
posted. This means that voters often do not know whether their registration
information is current and if they are registered. Many people do not know how
to find such information at all.
Highlights
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Massachusetts already has an
online statewide voter registration list, as required by the Help America Vote
Act. The list should be searchable online so that individuals can locate their
own registration information. This will help increase voter turnout and
awareness of registration status.
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Some states and localities
already allow voters to confirm their registration status online. These
include Georgia; North Carolina; Virginia; Champaign County, Illinois; Orange
County, Florida; Utah County, Utah; and Boston.
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An MIT/Caltech Voting
Technology Project report estimated that 122,000 registered
Massachusetts voters in 2000 did not cast a ballot because of
registration-based problems. With an accessible, online voting list, voters
could check their voting status before the registration deadline and have time
to correct any errors.
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Those who register to vote
at a voter registration event would be able to check their own registration
status online to be sure that their completed form was properly delivered and
dealt with.
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