Gov. Josh Shapiro recently implemented a new measure to ensure more Pennsylvanians have access to elections: Residents getting driver’s licenses and ID cards will now automatically be opted into registering to vote through Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) computers. State residents already had the option, but an automatic prompt remains a simple and effective way to nudge voters in the direction of civic duty.
The measure is also inherently secure. Everyone getting an ID at a government PennDOT facility provides proof of residency, age and citizenship.
American voters’ low turnout numbers are a blemish on our democracy. Voter participation in special elections and primaries sometimes dips into the single-digits. Using every tool available to make voting accessible, easy and simple strengthens the social and political fabric of the country.
But some state Republicans have strongly opposed to the measure. Among them is House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, who argued that Mr. Shapiro lacked the authority to enact a new voter registration system. But removing an opt-in from a pre-existing registration screen is more an update than the creation of a new system, and shouldn’t require legislative approval.
The first law requiring Drivers License Centers to provide voter registration services was the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The act is clear: “Each State motor vehicle driver’s license application (including any renewal application) submitted to a State motor vehicle authority must serve as a simultaneous voter registration application.” This new measure falls firmly into line with the law’s guidance.
The inherently bipartisan measure also brings Pennsylvania into a cohort of 23 other states with an opt-out rather than opt-in voter registration. And there’s more good news: Tuesday’s changes add five more languages into the voter registration instructional database, bringing the total to 31.
Another house Republican who came out publicly against the measure was Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson, who issued a breathless statement calling the Shapiro administration “tyrants.” According to his statement, “[the new policy] risks turning a solemn duty into a thoughtless action, exploiting the system to catch the unwitting, the uncertain and the unintentional.”
In this case, the “unwitting, the uncertain and the unintentional” happens to be anyone at a Drivers License Center. And the terrible action they’re being tricked into performing is, well, registering to vote.
“Preserving the personal responsibility of registering to vote is not about making things harder; it’s about ensuring that the act itself carries the weight and importance it deserves,” Sen. Dush wrote. But registering to vote is not, and shouldn’t be, a test of passion or perseverance. It should be normal. Like renewing your driver’s license.
Adding more errands to voters’ to-do lists doesn’t convey the weight and importance of voting. Making sure that a democracy accurately reflects its people, however, does.
First Published: September 25, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
