Election-day registration catching on

In a post reprinted for the Working for Change web site, David Sirota talks about the "pro-democracy wildfire in America’s states." He is a proponent of election-day voter registration, something Wyoming has had for a long time. Here’s what he says:

On the most basic expression of democracy -- access to the vote -- Iowa just became the 8th state to legalize Election Day Registration. And thanks to the coalition of legislators and advocacy groups like Demos and the Progressive States Network, the other states are aggressively moving in the same direction. In all, 74 percent of eligible voters participated in states with election day registration, compared to only 60% in non-EDR states.

Interesting to note that Republican state legislators in Montana, angry about their party’s sweeping defeats in the November 2006 general election, tried to get rid of same-day registration during the recent legislative session. Thanks to an outcry from the progressive Netroots, that effort went down in flames. It’s good to know that if Republicans can’t get their way in elections, they vote to change the rules. Keep that in mind next election day.