Following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union pledge earlier this year, a Presidential Commission on Election Administration was launched to identify non-partisan ways to shorten lines at polling places, promote the efficient conduct of elections, and provide better access to the polls for all voters.
The commission has been holding public hearings as they prepare a final report back to the President later this year. The Brennan Center for Justice has spoken to the commission, including giving testimony on their biggest issue, which is voter registration modernization. According to Myrna Perez, deputy director at Brennan, there are up to 50 million eligible Americans who cannot vote on Election Day because they are not registered to vote.
“We know that at any given Election Day, up to 3 million eligible citizens couldn’t vote because of a problem related to registration,” said Perez.
“Our system relies too much on paper…information should be transmitted electronically. It’s cheaper, there are fewer mistakes and it makes the rolls more accurate,” she said.
Perez said the commission also heard testimony on early voting.
“Our research suggests that early voting should be a full two weeks before Election Day … there should be a minimum number of daily hours set each day consistent among states with extended hours offered," she said.
Another issue being raised to the commission is the concerns of Independent voters.
Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, said that the whole process is swayed toward bi-partisan decisions forgetting the 40 percent of the voting population, that Salit claims, are independent.
One significant improvement according to her would be to the primary system.
“Instead of having party primaries, where Independents are often barred from voting, you have a public primary where all candidates compete against one another and all voters cast ballots, and the top two finishers go on to general election," she said.
