On Friday night (1/21) legislators received an email from the Speaker of the House stating that on the following Thursday (1/27) the House will be voting on a package of voting reforms. This package would be a version of the VOTES Act - the voting reform package passed in the Senate back in October. The VOTES Act includes four main voting reforms:
- Vote-by-mail becomes permanent
- Early voting becomes permanent
- Strengthens access for jail-based voting
- Establishes Same-Day Voter Registration
This is exciting news, but we’re not in the clear just yet. The House released their version of the bill Wednesday morning, and it does not include Same-Day Voter Registration.
Here’s what you need to know:
The bill that the House will be voting on and/or passing will look quite different from the version the Senate passed. After the Senate passes a bill, it goes to the House (in this case to the Ways & Means Committee) where it can be (and usually is) rewritten and watered down to the House’s more moderate liking. (Recall that the Speaker singlehandedly hand-picks the chair and members of House Ways & Means to execute his agenda.) This is what happened in the vase of the VOTES Act - it went into House Ways & Means with Same Day Registration (SDR) and emerged without it.
The final text of the bill emerged 28 hours before the scheduled vote. As always, legislators and advocates had just a few hours to read the new version of this legislation and draft and file amendments to it. (The bill emerged around 9:30AM Wednesday and amendments were due by 5:00PM.) This is by design; Leadership wants their version of the bill to be passed with as few amendments and as little scrutiny as possible. (Wouldn’t having a rule requiring at least 72 hours to read a bill be great right about now?)
Some Background on Same-Day Voter Registration. Enabling people to register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day is estimated to increase voter turnout by an average of 10%, and as much as 17% for Black and Latino individuals.
Massachusetts currently has a voter registration deadline 20 days before an election, needlessly disenfranchising thousands. 21 states already have SDR, including Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. While the Senate has rubber-stamped SDR several times over the years, the House has always killed it, including as recently as last year where it lost 16 to 139. (See how the disappointing vote broke down here).
Same-Day Voter Registration would help primary challengers. Incumbents have a structural interest in keeping the voter pool as similar as possible to the one that got them elected. Expanding the electorate by 10 percent or more could lower their odds of reelection. Perhaps it’s no wonder, then, that as recently as Monday Speaker Mariano said he wasn’t in favor of the policy.
& here’s what you can do:
Tell your rep to support the VOTES Act, and demand that it include Same-Day Voter Registration: