I’ll cut to the chase: the House did not pass Same Day Registration on Thursday. 

This isn’t surprising; the House has been killing Same Day Registration efforts for 15 years. Their reasoning is an open secret: allowing voters to register and vote on the same day would drastically increase voter turnout – to the tune of 200,000 - 500,000 voters total. An influx of new voters could jeopardize the reelection of incumbent representatives. Courageous reps will tell you as much.

What was surprising, however, was how they did it. House leadership used procedural tricks to prevent any actual vote on the amendments for same-day or election day registration. Instead, they ordered the Secretary of State to study the economic impact of implementation.

In other words, they killed it by “sending it to study.”

SEE HOW YOUR REP VOTED >>

EMAIL YOUR REP ABOUT THEIR VOTE >>

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State House Scoop: VOTES Act edition

Thursday evening, the State House passed their version of the VOTES Act (H.4359). The version that the Senate passed in October (S.2554) included the following main elements: making permanent vote-by-mail and early voting, ensuring ballot access to eligible incarcerated voters, and establishing Same-Day Voter Registration (“SDR”). 

Let’s start with the good news

Vote-by-mail, early voting and jail-based voting protections all made it into the final bill. This is a massive victory. Rep. Liz Miranda’s amendment to strengthen protections for jail-based voting (amendment #13) would re-enfranchise the 7,000 - 9,000 incarcerated individuals in Massachusetts – who are disproportionately Black and Brown – being held pre-trial at any given time. Plus, the bill would shrink the blackout period for registration from 20 days before an election to 10 days.

The Election Day Registration compromise

After addressing jail-based voting (and knocking out a few Republican amendments) the debate turned to Same Day Registration. The central talking point against SDR, used ad nauseam, was that its implementation would be too costly and logistically challenging to implement. 

The Massachusetts Clerks Association prefers a slightly different policy called Election Day Registration, where new voters could show up on election day to both register and cast their ballot, but could not do so during the early voting period. In other words, the clerks want just one day of juggling both registrations and voting as opposed to ten. Rep. Nika Elugardo touted this as a compromise position as she spoke on the floor in support of her amendment for EDR (amendment #40).

Leadership’s dirty trick: Rep. Mike Moran’s “further amendment”

But before anyone could vote on either SDR or EDR, Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Mike Moran took the podium. Rep. Moran represents Allston-Brighton, a student and renter-heavy district where a policy like SDR or EDR could drastically change the electorate and hurt his chances of reelection.

Shocking much of the membership and all of us watching at home, Rep. Moran proposed a change to the main SDR amendment (amendment #11, filed by Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa), that called for the Secretary of State to conduct a comprehensive study on how much implementing SDR would cost the state and every municipality. The language specified no deadline or roadmap to implementation. 

In other words: Leadership swooped in at the last minute to gut any attempt to add SDR or EDR into the bill. 

House votes 93 - 64 to punt Same Day Registration

After heated debate on the floor, Rep. Moran’s  “further amendment” passed 93 - 64. This also meant that the other two amendments dealing with Same-day or Election day registration were moot, and wouldn’t even get a vote. 

Reps. Nika Elugardo, Erika Uyterhoeven, Tami Gouveia, and Jamie Belsito spoke on the floor against this disingenuous procedural move. 

The following reps spoke on the floor in support of the gutting of SDR: Mike Moran, Danielle Gregoire, Kip Diggs, Tackey Chan, Michael Day, Dan Hunt, Joan Meschino, and Kathleen LaNatra. 

See how the full vote broke down here. 66 Democrats took a position to the right of every Democrat in the MA Senate, the Secretary of State Bill Galvin, and every single Democrat in the US House of Representatives. 61 voted against killing SDR, effectively bucking the Speaker. 

What happens next: conference committee

It’s not over ‘till it's over. Because the House’s version of the VOTES Act doesn’t include SDR but the Senate’s version does, there are now  two incongruous versions of the same bill. When this happens, the legislature forms a conference committee to come up with a compromise version of the bill that will eventually land on the governor’s desk.

We have to hope that the Senators on the conference committee (yet to be appointed) hold the line on SDR - our fate will be in their hands.

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Take Action: Email your rep about their vote on killing Same Day Registration

Especially in the wake of a session as consequential as this, it’s crucial to tell your representative how you felt about their vote. After all, their job is to represent you and your views. And it’s just as important to thank your rep if they did the right thing as it is to express frustration if they didn’t.

We’ve made reaching out to your rep easy with our automatic email form. This form uses the results of the vote on amendment 11.1 to populate either a message of gratitude or disappointment depending on your district:

EMAIL YOUR REP >>

You can send the email as-written, or edit it to your liking!

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P.S. Here are some articles covering Thursday’s vote if you want to read and learn more: