Election Day Registration

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Election Day Registration, also known as "same-day voter registration," permits eligible citizens to register and vote on Election Day. Election Day Registration significantly increases the opportunity for all citizens to cast a vote and participate in democracy.

[edit] United States

Seven states have some form of Election Day Registration: Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming. (Montana enacting the practice for the first time in 2006). (Connecticut also has EDR, but only for casting votes for the Presidency.) Two more states, Iowa and North Carolina, have passed similar legislation to allow for same-day voter registration and will begin being used in January of 2008 and October of 2007 respectively. Under the new system proposed in North Carolina, the same-day registration would occur three to nineteen days before the scheduled election.

In the 2004 presidential election, voter turnout in states utilizing Election Day Registration was 12 percent higher than states that did not.^[1] Likewise, in the 2006 elections, states with EDR showed turnout rates 10-12 percent higher than in non-EDR states. .^[2]

In EDR states, eligible citizens who are not found on the voting lists are asked to show a valid ID to a poll worker, who checks their ID, consults the registration list, and, if they are not registered, registers them on the spot. Research shows that the people most likely to be affected are middle- and low-income voters, young people, and recent movers.