Support for voter registration was weak Thursday during a meeting of the interim Judiciary Committee, whose members, tasked with studying the issue, were more concerned with verifying residency. North Dakota is the sole state without voter registration, which was eliminated in 1951. If it were implemented, the process would subject the state to a series of federal reporting requirements from which it is now exempt, according to Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum.
If registration were authorized, an application would need to be developed and made available to government entities as well as private groups that work to register voters, Silrum said. The North Dakota Department of Transportation also would have to offer registration to anyone applying for a driver’s license or non-driver’s license identification. “State DOTs have become the single largest source of registrations,” he said.
It could cost millions in staff increases, according to Silrum, citing other states have had costs in the tens of millions of dollars to comply with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act.
Full Article: Support lackluster for voter registration.
The Voting News
A News Service of the Verified Voting Foundation
