Same Day Registration in California!

Starting in 2014. Read about it here.

Super Easy Voter Registration/Absentee Ballot Request Tool!

Click here to be redirected to the Turbovote website.

So easy in fact that I nearly requested an absentee ballot by accident while playing around with it. That's right, I GET TO VOTE IN PERSON IN MY HOME STATE IN THE GENERAL ELECTION. Pass it on!

Just Got This Email from the University Administration

Way to go Columbia! I will do a separate post about TurboVote and Project Vote Smart later. Go Columbia! This is informative and awesome.
______________________________________________________________________________________


Dear Columbia Students,



Registering to vote is the most straightforward way to engage in the democratic process. Some of you may already be registered in your home districts or here in New York. If not, please note that you are allowed to vote here in New York County if you have been a resident for at least 30 days. New York State voter registration forms are available in the Government & Community Affairs office, Low Library Room 309.



If you prefer to vote in your home district, TurboVote is a tool that makes it easy to register and vote while away at college. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to submit your registration forms or absentee ballots on time and to remind your fellow students, friends, and family to do the same.



For a state by state listing of voter registration deadlines and requirements for both primary and general elections, please go to Project Vote Smart and select your home state from the voter registration drop down menu. Additional information about voter registration can be found on the Government and Community Affairs website.



For those who will be voting in New York, please be reminded that the New York Primary Election is September 13th.



We know that voter turnout increases when young people urge other young people to vote. Whatever your voting preference, we hope that Columbia students will do their part to increase turnout in 2012 by making their voices heard come November 6.



Sincerely,



Maxine Griffith, AICP

Executive Vice President

for Government & Community Affairs

and Special Advisor, Campus Planning

Columbia University

At least SOMEONE is making it easier to vote

You've gotta hand it to the OFA new media team. In the throws of what has been termed the "GOP War On Voting" they've created a tool to fight fire with civic engagement. Gottaregister.com does everything for you but put the stamp on your registration and drop it in the mail (which some people would *still* need to get in their registrations but that's another issue).

You choose your state, fill in the fields provided and gottaregister.com populates a voter registration form ready to print and mail. It can even help you request an absentee ballot or change your registration address. The PDF generated by the site comes with a handy instructions (basically fold, stamp and mail) and an envelope already addressed to the board of elections. As if that weren't enough, your submission triggers an automatically generated email reminding you to submit the form (and how), thanking you for your support of the President (voter reg drives have to be non-partisan so you could technically register as a Republican, but the site is being marketing to Dems) and linking you to ways to stay involved. That's some field organizer follow up at its finest. (Okay, better if I got a phone call five seconds later asking me to volunteer, but the election year is young.)

I just want to throw out there...when one party is making it easier to vote while another is trying to keep people from voting, you gotta wonder who truly represents the will of the people.

For the record, I registered Democrat.

<3, Nancy
UPDATE: received another (2nd) follow up email from gottaregister.com, a day after I signed up, copy and pasted below. Way to follow up.


Nancy --

It's been 1 day since you filled out your voter registration form. Have you signed it and mailed it in yet?

The signed voter registration form must be postmarked by 1:00 AM on October 14, 2011 -- just 17 days away.

If you haven't yet, please mail your completed form to:

NYS Board of Elections
40 Steuben Street

Albany, NY 12207-2108

If you've already mailed your form, click here to let us know:

I mailed my voter registration form

Do you have questions about registering to vote? Call:

(518) 473-5086

You can print a new copy of your registration form by clicking here

If your form is incorrect, you've recently moved, or you need to start over, you can edit your form.

After you mail your form, make sure your family, friends and neighbors do the same.

Thanks,

Will

Today in Voter Suppression

New Mexico's Secretary of State wants to investigate 64,000 voter registrations by cross checking them with the state's Motor Vehicle Division's database. Unfortunately that's not going to work.

Here's what I found most interesting. According to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law,"If the right to vote [in New York City] were conditioned on a proper match, up to 20 percent of new voter registrations would have been rejected solely because of data entry errors. Similar 'matching' error rates of 20-30 percent were discovered in Washington State. And the Social Security Administration has reported a 28.5 percent failed match rate nationwide." Whoa. Having worked with quite a few state voter files I guess that number should not surprise me, but it does highlight how much inaccuracy there is in our well...everything. This is why I reaaaallly think we should have a national voting database to eliminate at least some of the discrepancies that occur by moving from state to state.

The Fair Elections Legal Network wrote Secretary of State Duran objecting to the measure. "We fear that your attempt to ensure 'accuracy and integrity' in the system has had the opposite effect as unsubstantiated claims of large numbers of irregularities on voter registration records do not lead to greater accuracy of records and may, indeed, serve to undermine confidence in the system."

No one has taken legal action but the President of the the FELN implied that could be a next step. In his letter he quoted the following New Mexico state law "It is unlawful for the qualified elector's month and day of birth or any portion of the qualified elector's social security number required on the certificate of registration to be copied, conveyed or used by anyone other than the person registering to vote, either before or after it is filed with the county clerk, and by elections administrators in their official capacity."

It sounds like the FELM is right. The Secretary of State's actions, though possibly well intentioned, would serve no purpose except to undermine confidence and threaten privacy, which would, of course, reduce voter turnout.