Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch was in Hamilton Thursday, talking about the state’s controversial same-day voter registration, what she sees as the biggest challenges facing Montana election officials and the Democratic Party’s selection of a new candidate for U.S. Senate. If it passes in November, initiative LR126 will eliminate same-day voter registration, a move McCulloch opposes as the state’s top elections administrator. “Since 2006, 29,000 Montana voters have used same-day voter registration,” said McCulloch. “Most of those are people who moved across the state or moved across the city and they are getting their kids in school, they are getting their house set up and they are getting into new jobs and the last thing they think about – because they don’t have to – is registering to vote in their new place. They can do that on Election Day.
“The other thing that is important is this is the fail-safe system – if they have registered to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles when they got their license or at a social service place or someone that came to their door and those folks forgot to turn it in – they think they are registered and they go to the polls on election day to vote and find out they aren’t registered. This is the only fail-safe that gives them the opportunity to vote.
“As the chief elections official for the state of Montana, it’s my job to see that everyone eligible to vote gets a chance to vote and people have very patiently waited in line to vote and I think if they are willing, we ought to give them the chance to vote. “I think taking that away is a huge mistake.”
Full Article: McCulloch supports same-day voter registration.