Cross-posted at Project Vote's Voting Matters Blog

After the 2008 election, voter registration has become a focal point for legislators and advocates from all ends of the spectrum. Whichever way it is sliced, the number of registered eligible voters has still declined since 2004. As multiple problems have been cited as the cause for lowered registration rates (including mobility issues, unequal access to registration opportunities, voter caging, and even so-called apathy), voting rights advocates as well as legislators have been vocal about their solutions.

In 1993, Congress attempted to increase voter participation by expanding access to voter registration with the enactment of the National Voter Registration Act. Congress' goals have been partially realized with the Act's best known "motor voter" provision, which has brought a significant number of voter registration applications and updates from citizens who visit motor vehicles offices.

One way the "motor voter" program could be improved, suggests Ventura County Star editor and columnist Tim Herdt, is by expanding the age groups that can take advantage of the convenience. Herdt writes about pending California Assembly Bill 30, which would amend state election law to allow all 17-year-old citizens to pre-register to vote. Pointing out that more Californian's registered to vote through the DMV than by dropping off applications at the county elections offices around the state, Herdt says lowering the voter registration age would only maximize the motor voter aspect of the NVRA.

"Now, think about what age most people receive their first driver's license. It's either 16 or 17, which is too young to vote," he wrote. "There are many reasons why potential voters from 18 to 24 are the least likely to be registered of any age group, but right up there has got to be the fact that at the time it is most convenient for them to register, they are slightly too young to take advantage of it."

Partisanship has been a battle with passing such legislation. However, a handful of states - both red and blue - have adopted preregistration policies. Herdt quotes AB 30 supporter and deputy director of the New America Foundation Political Reform Program, Blair Bobier: "As you look at other states, this has been a thoroughly nonpartisan or bipartisan issue," including Florida, where Republican Gov. Charlie Crist has been a supporter of preregistration.

The preregistration bill is currently on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk.

While the motor voter program has largely been a success, enforcement of other, integral parts of the NVRA have been spotty, particularly in those that target historically underrepresented low income citizens. Voter registration applications through public assistance agencies, for example--a requirement for most states under the NVRA--have declined by 79 percent since the law was first implemented in 1995. Project Vote's Public Agency Registration Project - a joint effort with national voting rights and election reform policy group, Demos - has proven that bringing states into compliance with the law is an effective means of increasing participation. The groups' efforts have helped see states like Missouri go from collecting a dismal 8,000 applications a year to collecting more than 100,000 applications in just eight months, and all it took was following the law.

The recurring theme in overhauling the voter registration system is improving access to underrepresented groups, which can be facilitated by implementing or improving existing law. In a recent blog entry, Demos' Tova Andrea Wang addresses voter registration access for new citizens, citing upcoming elections in New Jersey and Virginia - where 40 percent of Latino citizens remain unregistered - as catalysts for rethinking the voter registration process. Wang suggests that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency responsible for implementing the naturalization process, should be designated as a voter registration agency under the NVRA.

"The government should start to share the burden of ensuring new Americans are registered to vote by having the federal agency responsible for immigrant services agency routinely provide voter registration materials and information to every new citizen upon naturalization," Wang wrote.

"And it's not that new Americans don't want to participate--once they are registered, immigrants vote overwhelmingly. In fact, new citizens who are registered to vote have higher rates of voter turnout than natives who are registered to vote. They just aren't given the tools to take the steps to get registered in the first place."