The Senate dismissed voter fraud arguments on the floor Thursday and passed a bill allowing Election Day voter registration, 20-7.
The amended version of the same-day registration bill, S.29, puts off implementation until after the 2016 presidential elections, but will eventually allow Vermonters to register to vote minutes before casting an Election Day ballot.
“You’ll walk in. You’ll say ‘I’d like to register to vote.’ You’d take the voter’s oath under penalty of perjury, and you would register to vote,” said Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, chair of Senate Government Operations.
The measure is designed to encourage more people to vote, according to Sen. Anthony Pollina, D/P-Washington, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “It’s just time to do it. I really think that voter fraud is a red herring.”
The bill would allow voters to register to vote during regular business hours on Election Day. The current deadline is Wednesday before an election.
The legislation requires the Secretary of State to study the feasibility of letting town clerks put ballots in vote counters before an election to minimize counting delays. The Secretary of State would also report on how Internet access to polling places.
In the version passed out of the Senate Committee on Government Operations by a 3-2 party-line vote, same-day voter registration would have gone into effect on April 1, 2016. The amended version pushes that date to Jan. 1, 2017.
The Vermont Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Association wanted the implementation date delayed “in the spirit of compromise,” according to Karen Richard, chair of the association’s legislative committee.
Richard said in a statement that the clerks wanted more time to address lack of Internet at polling places and options to process Early/Absentee ballots. The association said that 83 of 141 members opposed the original version of S.29.
White said Wednesday the committee agreed to delay implementation.
Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, asked White to compare the state’s proof of identity requirements in comparison to other states, including Florida. Sen. Dustin Degree, R-Franklin, asked if there was a way for town clerks to verify citizenship and check for fraudulent college student registrations.
“The implications of some of the questions posed are very serious,” said Sen. Tim Ashe, D-Chittenden. “If the clerks were actually required to run the citizenship status of every single person on the [voter] checklist, check the date of birth of every single person on the checklist, or confirm the residency of everyone on the checklist, I think that would actually grind elections to a complete halt.”
“We’re not talking about anything new here,” Pollina said. “At least 14 other states already have it, including our neighbors in Maine and New Hampshire. I don’t read the New Hampshire papers every day or anything, but I haven’t heard of any large percentage of voter fraud.”
Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, voted against S.29 while in the Government Operations Committee. On the floor, Benning voted against the amended bill.
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group, one of the major lobbying groups advocating for the bill, supports the amended version of the bill.
