Public Wants Voting Made Easier (But Not Mandatory)

Recently, Oregon just passed a new voter registration law. Anyone who visits that state's Department of Motor Vehicles (to get a license, renew a license, get an ID, etc.) and is a citizen will automatically be registered to vote -- and they will be sent a mail-in ballot about 20 days before an election. They believe this will increase the number of citizens voting in that state -- and I think they're right.

What do Americans in general think of that law? Would they like for their own state to do the same? It turns out that a significant majority of Americans (54%) like the idea of automatic voter registration, while only about a third (35%) don't want it to happen. And that majority is in almost every demographic group (including 53% of Republicans).

Americans also like the idea of same-day (election day) voter registration. That's the opinion of 55% of the general public. And it's also popular across demographic lines -- except for Republicans, who oppose it 36% to 54%.

This clearly shows that the public wants voting made easier for all citizens. They want to remove barriers to voting -- not set up more barriers (as the GOP officials seem determined to do). Frankly, I think a federal law should be passed to allow automatic registration, same-day registration, and voting by mail for anyone. I doubt it will happen though. Republican officials think the fewer people who vote, the better off their party will be. So they are not about to make voting easier.

The one idea that the public doesn't like is making voting mandatory for all citizens (like some other countries do). That's opposed by a whopping 66% -- two-thirds of all Americans (see bottom chart).

These charts were made from numbers in a recent YouGov Poll -- done on March 24th and 25th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, with a 4.4 point margin of error.