Denver Post

YES: It's working elsewhere
By Rosemary Rodriguez

Sunday, September 15, 2002 - Your ability to vote is a fundamental constitutional right, and the law should not keep you from exercising it. But each election, an outdated state deadline keeps at least 200,000 eligible Colorado voters who want to cast ballots from doing so. Amendment 30, on this November's ballot, would fix this.

Under Colorado law, the 29th day before an election - October 7 this year - is a witching-hour that cuts off many people's rights to vote in that election. You can fall victim to it in two ways:

First, if you have previously voted (or even just registered) then moved, but not updated your voting address by the cutoff, you are barred from voting. The only exception is with an emergency registration - but to qualify for that you must swear, under penalty of perjury, that you did not know of the requirement to update your address. Having read this, you do not qualify and therefore cannot vote. What sense does that make? The cutoff also keeps you from voting if you have never registered by that date.

Every election, hundreds of thousands of eligible Colorado voters lose the legal right to vote under this law. For others, the cutoff, because it makes voting a two-step process, is a real inconvenience - especially in rural areas with long drive-times. The evidence from the six states that have repealed similar restrictions is that at least 200,000 more eligible Coloradans would vote in every election if the cutoff date were dropped.

Just as has been done in those other states, Amendment 30 will let eligible voters change their address and vote, or register for the first time and vote, on election day. That is especially appropriate with today's technologies, which allow instant checks against current registrations. In the six states that allow election-day registration, 15 percent more people vote than in the rest of the nation, without affecting the accuracy or administrative ease of elections. "It's a wonderful system," said Pat Arp, deputy secretary of state in Wyoming.

Amendment 30 also includes safeguards that are stricter than current law for earlier registrations. Election-day registrants must appear in person and show a driver's license or other state-issued photo ID to prove their identity, not just mail in a registration card. Trained election officials, not Department of Motor Vehicle workers, will do the election-day registrations. The statewide voter registration list, updated for election day, allows immediate computer checks for redundant registrations. Plus, as Arp said, multiple voting is "such an easy crime to catch, someone would have to be fairly unwise to do that."

Election-day registration builds on earlier reforms that allow women, minorities and younger citizens to vote and that allow voting by mail. Letting more eligible citizens vote strengthens our democracy. That is why the League of Women Voters of Colorado and 61 other local organizations support Amendment 30. Join them and vote "yes" on 30. One day, it could be you who can exercise your right to vote only because of this election reform.

Rosemary Rodriguez is co-chairperson for the "Yes on 30" campaign and former clerk of the City and County of Denver.