Under a law signed Monday by new Governor Kate Brown, any eligible Oregonian with a driver’s license will be automatically registered to vote and will receive a ballot by mail weeks before Election Day.
The measure is the first of its kind in the nation, and state officials project it will add 300,000 people to a voter roll that now numbers about 2.2 million. Oregon has long been an early-adopter of new voting methods, having shifted to an entirely vote-by-mail system in 1998. Passage of the law, which was supported by Democrats, marks a rare recent win for proponents of expanded access to the ballot box at a time when states are moving toward more restrictive measures…
The change directs the state’s department of transportation to transfer data for eligible voters to the secretary of state’s office so that they can be registered. Myrna Pérez, who directs the voting rights and elections project for NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, said the Oregon law is “groundbreaking in that it puts more of the responsibility for registering to vote on the government rather than on voters.” Yet its passage has also brought predictable warnings of voter fraud from conservatives. Kris Kobach, the Republican secretary of state in Kansas, said the Oregon law could lead to “a perfect storm of errors.”
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