New report highlights need to modernize voter registration, record-keeping

    Media Contact
  • Dale Eisman

The millions of mistakes and gaps in voter registration records reported today by the Pew Center for the States are a national embarrassment that every state legislator and governor should attack immediately, Common Cause said today.

“Twenty-four million inaccurate or invalid voter registrations would be unacceptable in an emerging, third world democracy; it is intolerable in the United States of America,” said Bob Edgar, president and CEO of the non-profit government watchdog group.

“It’s past time for state voter registration and record-keeping systems to be streamlined and upgraded to 21st century standards,” Edgar said. “We should be focused on ways to make it easier for citizens to get on the voter rolls and on maintaining accurate, accessible records once they get there.”

Edgar said the Pew report demonstrates that in addition to being more accurate, modernized registration record-keeping is actually more cost efficient than the paper systems now in use in many states.

“Unfortunately, many of our state legislators seem focused on limiting, rather than promoting, the right to vote,” Edgar added. “The toughened voter identification laws they’re promoting would do nothing to solve the problems spotlighted in the Pew study; instead they would keep millions of qualified voters from participating in our democracy.”