After a full day of discussion yesterday, lawmakers placed one of three bills aimed at reforming Guam’s voter registration laws into the voting file. Freshman Sen. Mary Camacho Torres’ measure, Bill 23-33, proposes implementing a voter registration portal on the Guam Election Commission’s website, giving island residents another means to register. The Republican senator from Santa Rita said it’s important for Guam to keep up with evolving technology. “The bill is intended to modernize Guam’s voter registration, … this whole idea of modernizing is really the wave of today and tomorrow,” Torres said. Torres stressed that if the bill is passed, the option for residents who want to register in person with a registrar will still exist.
Bill 23 also aims to remove a provision in current Guam law that requires proof of citizenship when registering, such as a birth certificate or passport. Upon registering, applicants would only have to provide their Guam driver’s license number, Guam identification card number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
The passport and birth certificate requirement disenfranchises certain Guamanians who don’t possess those forms of identification, Torres said.
Full Article: Voter registration bill to ‘modernize’ process | Pacific Daily News | guampdn.com.