On Thursday, during the floor debate on the MA House’s weakened version of the VOTES Act, the MA House voted to block the inclusion of Same Day Registration or Election Day Registration in the underlying bill.
President Biden, Senator Warren, Senator Markey, all 9 of our US Representatives, and all 37 Democratic members of the MA Senate support allowing eligible voters to register or update their registration at the polls, and yet the MA House remains undemocratically opposed.
During that floor debate, several House Democrats—Assistant Majority Leader Mike Moran (D-Brighton), Rep. Danielle Gregoire (D-Marlborough), Rep. Mike Day (D-Stoneham), Rep. Tackey Chan (D-Quincy), Rep. Kip Diggs (D-Barnstable), Rep. Joan Meschino (D-Hull), Rep. Dan Hunt (D-Dorchester), and Rep. Kathy LaNatra (D-Kingston)—spoke against implementing Same Day Registration or Election Day Registration (terms often used interchangeably, but in the context different as to whether or not the early voting period would be included for at-the-polls registration), delivering remarks filled with specious arguments and factual inaccuracies. Their colleagues have given similarly specious defenses of the vote to constituents afterwards. Let’s go through them.
Bad Argument #1: We are already a leader on voting rights.
“When I think about what we have done — pre-registration, where we allow our young kids ages 16 and 17 to pre-register so they automatically are registered — you can go online right now. We require the secretary of state to have an online portal where you can register to vote online. It takes approximately 12 to 15 minutes to register to vote online on your phone. If you’re moving and you need to change your address or change your voter registration address, you can do it online. You can follow your ballot online, much like FedEx lets you track your package. We’ve also done election day audits and early voting by mail. All of these are part of the package we should be very proud to talk about in this Legislature. The very last thing we did, automatic voter registration, might be one of the most impactful pieces of legislation we’ve done relative to voters.” (MORAN)
“We have enacted the most sweeping voter protection laws in the nation. No one is more frustrated about what is going on in this country and the attacks on voting.” (GREGOIRE)
“Based on some of the debate some might conclude we’re sitting in the Georgia State House. We seem to be losing sight of the gains we are making. Our constituents expect us to determine what’s best for here, not other states. Here in Massachusetts, we lead the country in making the franchise available and accessible to all eligible voters. No other state offers pre-registration, mail-in voting, outdoor ballot boxes, automatic and online registration and online updating.” (DAY)
“The gentleman from Stoneham was saying some say this is voter suppression. I say give me a break. Massachusetts has been a leader. I think our work today proves that.” (HUNT)
Massachusetts Democrats often like to describe our state as a leader in small “d” democracy, but it’s a claim in desperate need of a reality check. Massachusetts only began allowing early voting, pre-registration, and online registration after the election reform package in 2014 (we were a late adopter). Massachusetts was not the first state to adopt Automatic Voter Registration; we were the 14th. Our 20-day voter registration cutoff puts us to the right of most states. Eight states mail every eligible voter a ballot, going even further than the mail-in voting reforms discussed in Massachusetts (which, to be clear, have lapsed and which did not exist before 2020).
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Vermont, and Washington have Same Day Registration, Automatic Voter Registration, online registration, and all-mail elections (with the equivalent of in-person early voting with the drop-off centers). DC, Illinois, Maryland, and Michigan have Same Day Registration, Automatic Voter Registration, online registration, in-person early voting, and no-excuse absentee voting. So our current laws, or even the bill passed by the House, do not make us a leader.
But what if we were? What if our election laws were the best in the country? Simply “being better than other states” is not a sufficient benchmark; the question is always whether we are doing all that we can. And we’re not.
Bad Argument #2: It is a solution in search of a problem.
“The very last thing we did, automatic voter registration, might be one of the most impactful pieces of legislation we’ve done relative to voters. We have an opt out system, so when you engage with the Registry of Motor Vehicles or other agencies, you have to tell them you don’t want to be registered. I can tell you when we passed that vote, I won’t divulge names, one of the advocacy groups said to me, “You’re making it very, very challenging for us to make the case for same day voter registration.” I agreed with her then, but I think we have something to do in that direction, and that is what this further amendment is about.” (MORAN)
“I rise in support of the further amendment for several reasons, not the least of which is that the underlying proposals are solutions looking for problems. We do not have a voter registration problem, we have a perception problem here. This past November, in the election, that was historic, only 28.9 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. In the last municipal election before COVID in Marlborough, the turnout was 25 percent… However, enacting solutions to non-existent problems does nothing to change the national discourse. It creates issues and opens us to unprecedented criticism.” (GREGOIRE)
People move, and that includes moving close to Election Day. Especially when our state primary is so close to a major move-in day in Boston (i.e., September 1). The act of moving close to Election Day, or even being evicted close to Election Day, can lead to disenfranchisement if people are far away from their old polling location, and that is an injustice.
Moreover, these arguments are ignorant of the many stresses that working-class people face: planning more than 20 days (or even 10 days) in advance can be difficult for those balancing family commitments and multiple jobs with erratic work schedules, not to mention an array of bills and other responsibilities. Missing deadlines is common (the legislature does it all the time), and managing a deadline that far in advance can be difficult for those with ADHD (one Election Day is easier to get a handle of than the many steps that need to be juggled prior). None of that should make someone less worthy of participation.
Imagine as well how likely of a scenario it could be that someone thought they had registered but, indeed, hadn’t (they already get to fill out a provisional ballot, so why not let them register? ) Or imagine if someone’s pre-marriage or pre-divorce name, or deadname, were the one on the rolls, differing from what they use now and what their ID shows. Or, since poll workers are human, imagine if there was a clerical error in the books. Why should none of this be able to be fixed?
Automatic Voter Registration is great, but it will never capture everyone, both for the reasons stated above and for the fact that not everyone would be interfacing with a designated agency (not everyone has a license!).
That legislators would not see a need for Election Day Registration shows that they are not talking with their constituents with the greatest need. And that’s a problem.
Bad Argument #3: It doesn’t even lead to any demonstrable increases in turnout.
“To the contrary of the lady before me, I found the National Conference of State Legislatures, research from them has concluded that there is no demonstrable increase in voter participation in states that have same day or election day registration.” (GREGOIRE)
From the very website referenced: “There is strong evidence that same-day and Election Day registration increases voter turnout, but the extent of the impact is difficult to conclude. Immediately following the implementation of SDR, states usually see a boost in voter numbers. SDR states also tend to outperform other states in terms of turnout percentages. Many states that have implemented SDR have historically produced higher voter numbers, making changes hard to gauge. Multiple studies place the effect between an increase of 3% to 7%, with an average of a 5% increase.”
Bad Argument #4: We haven’t done the research, and we don’t know the cost and the impact. We need to study this.
“Now we come to the further amendment. The further amendment would call on the secretary of state to create a report. One of the things that having some institutional knowledge gives you is you have some sense of where this comes and where this is going. For years, it was something we talked about, it was debated in bills, but it wasn’t something that we really took in a serious way and did any real prudent research on.” (MORAN)
“When you’re talking about paying for same-day voter registration or the mechanisms you need to put in place and what that means to 351 cities and towns that range in size from 89, which is Gosnell, to Boston, it means very different things to very different cities and towns. What this report would hopefully do is identify some of those challenges that we would have.” (MORAN)
“I think it’s important to get it right and reject the argument this is suppression. It’s not a study in procedure only. It’s a true study. We have 351 cities and towns because when they were founded, individuals in one town got fed up with government, went to the next plot of land and started over. I think it’s important to spend some time and get down to the facts and get it right. The argument that this is voter suppression is not unlike Mona Lisa Vito. It does not hold water.” (HUNT)
The fact that the House has done no research on this issue, if true, is damning. The Joint Committee on Election Laws held a hearing on the VOTES Act in May of last year. If cost were a genuine concern, the Committee had ample time to investigate that question. Why does it exist if not to perform due diligence on bills?
Moreover, Same Day Registration has been filed each session at least going back to the 2000s, and it was voted on by the MA Senate in 2007 and 2014 (in both cases, the House refused to take it up). Why did the Joint Committee on Election Laws never collect such desired information in the hearings or meetings in the past? The only logical conclusion is that they never wanted to do it, and that they still don’t.
A “study” that has no deadline and no funding is not a study. Sending a bill or amendment to “study” is a common procedural trick in the Legislature to avoid having to formally vote yes or no. It is done all the time. The House routinely uses “further amendments” (which send an amendment to study) to nullify Republican messaging amendments that Democratic members are afraid to vote on. It gives people the ability to deflect from criticism of having opposed the thing itself: they didn’t oppose it; they just asked for a study. It is an insult to everyone’s intelligence.
And—before I move on—Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin, our top elections official, was quite clear that we don’t need a study to make this happen; we can and should just do it.
Bad Argument #5: The clerks oppose it.
“I had a chat with the clerk with the city of Marlborough and his assertion was that if we implement same day or election day voting in addition to codifying emergency measures, the additional burden would be a logistical nightmare he was unsure of how it would work.” (GREGOIRE)
“A lot has been said today about clerks. Yes, we do read every single thing you send us. Reading the letters and the communications from the clerk and speaking with the women, the clerks, in my communities, they actually share our commitment to increasing voter access and engaging voters. These women are trained and knowledgeable in every facet of elections, including the parts you don’t see. They are committed to ensuring integrity, making sure it is a smooth easy process. They do a fantastic job. If they are the ones reaching out and asking us to just take a small pause, I think we owe it to them to listen to the people who do this work. I’m asking you to join me in supporting the further amendment.” (MESCHINO)
“In speaking with the clerks in my district, same day registration would be an overwhelming task to add to what is already a daunting process.” (LANATRA)
To the contrary, the Town Clerks’ Association expressed support for Election Day Registration (see their letter here). They disagreed with allowing voters to register at the polls during early voting. We can debate whether or not their opposition has merit (it doesn’t; other states have handled it fine), but the legislators are clearly disingenuous in invoking clerks to cover for themselves.
Bad Argument #6: This would be burdensome for staffing.
“In our caucus earlier, the gentlelady from Gloucester brought up some of the staffing issues and staffing levels that would have to happen in the state to do this. Also brought up was training people to know how to do this correctly. There’s more than 2,000 precincts in Massachusetts and approximately 1,220 polling locations, and there are 391 early voting locations. All of those would need to be looked at to see how they could appropriately carry out the process of same-day voter registration. In many of those locations, they’ve never even considered it.” (MORAN)
“Other issues we need to consider: bilingual residence. How many additional staff do we need across the commonwealth to make sure those people coming in have their voices heard?” (MORAN)
“Those who spend quite a bit of time at polling locations know that there is a challenge regarding staffing election days. The expansion of early voting prompted a lot of questions about staffing. Challenges were met and overcome but it took some time. The same issue applies to linguistic access to polling places, people that you can find on election day to work polls, to talk to people who don’t speak English to help them to vote. I want to have a system where no one is disenfranchised or one that makes people feel small when they have the opportunity to cast a vote.” (CHAN)
If legislators had good faith concerns about staffing, they would have asked for an analysis last year or years prior and made the necessary appropriation. The feigned concern for overworked small towns is undermined by the fact that the House made early voting requirements more burdensome for small municipalities than the Senate did (see the chart below). Having more early voting hours is, obviously, better than having fewer ones, but it demonstrates that staffing is not a genuine concern.
Furthermore, our poll workers, on whom our democracy depends, have to prepare for full turnout every election. We never get close to that unfortunately; turnout more than 50% is often deemed impressive. But what that means is that going into Election Day, we need to assume that everyone who has not yet voted by mail or voted early could show up to vote. The additional voters that EDR could turn out will be small in comparison to that (although meaningful in terms of election results).
Bad Argument #7: We do not have the technology.
“Internet accessibility was brought up by the gentleman from Quincy. There are parts of this commonwealth we have yet to get appropriate access. Are we going to have a closed system, where only clerks are limited to using that system? Or is it going to be held in the cloud? These are lots of challenging things we’ve never really thought about when it comes to same-day voter registration.” (MORAN)
“We do not have a plan before us to equip them with technology and access to the internets [sic] they would need to implement these proposals. We do not have a sense of what it would cost. Our clerks describe a normal election day, charitably, as a nonstop fire drill, sometimes ending days later. Clerks have not been provided with information about these changes. This amendment would do just that. You want same day or election-day voting? Let’s figure it out. That’s what this amendment does. As enshrined in this bill voters may register up to the day before.” (DAY)
Maine has had Election Day Registration since the 1970s, and New Hampshire has since the 1990s. We are no less technologically advanced. It is not a question of technology; it is a question of political will.
Moreover, the small towns in Massachusetts that have bad Internet access (digital inequities are real) are places where voting likely occurs at one location: their city hall—a place that will have decent Internet access. (Additionally, Rep. Day’s comment that “voters may register up to the day before” is factually untrue; the underlying bill only narrows the cutoff period to ten days.)
Bad Argument #8: What if it leads to more people voting in a pandemic?
“What about queuing in line, where there are many people who want to vote but the facility has a queue that can’t build up? What about COVID? What about the next variant? How serious is that going to be? We all took that vote last year. Our clerks and the people that administer our elections are essential workers to us. These are things that we have not really fleshed out or considered when thinking about same-day voter registration.” (MORAN)
First of all, this frames higher turnout as an inherently bad thing, a disappointing thing to hear from an elected.
Second of all, see the comments about staffing earlier.
Third, isn’t the very purpose of mail-in voting and early voting to spread out when voting occurs to avoid lines? This bill is creating less work on the day of by doing so.
Bad Argument #9: People should have to register in advance; it’s a vital step of responsibility and a part of political education.
“It is a privilege and it comes with responsibilities and efforts in registration, in a timely way. We agree that they are benchmarks of our democracy. Forward thinking people of all races walked over the trenches in the South to get here to vote. I am a professional boxer but to have to fight on same day voting is a bit much. I will fight for anyone in the state to vote but I feel that they have to register in time. They have from now until 10 days before our voting day. And then we can give 10 days to mail in or walk in to vote. We have plenty of time to vote and that is the best way to do it.” (Diggs)
“I have a different perspective as a person who in his 20s stood on street corners to register voters. This was some 25 or so years ago today. And in Quincy at the time it was predominantly Chinese and people of color. We had to engage them one on one. I didn’t do this sitting at a fair, it was a direct approach for engagement. Voter education is a large part of voter registration and the need to explain why it is important to register. This is very time consuming. Since my days of registering people in person, new ways have come up. The ability to vote online which at the time websites were not used that much back then, but it is very commonplace now. I never thought that we would have automatic voter registration through the RMV. There are many new ways to cross different barriers. I am concerned about the impact on the underlying amendment because the engagement of registering to vote is a one on one experience. To have the linguistic ability present at the polls to explain to people how to manage a ballot, how to register is important.” (CHAN)
To some extent, the response is the same in #2 about the need that Election Day Registration fills, especially among BIPOC communities, working-class communities, immigrant communities, young people, and renters.
But both of these comments ignore the simple fact that figuring out that an election is happening, finding your polling place, and doing some research on candidates—all things that people who show up at the polls have done—is a demonstration of the very responsibility and political education that they are demanding. To Rep. Chan’s remarks, the work of civic engagement is year-round, and that reality is not an excuse for turning anyone away from the polls.
Bad Argument #10: This would allow voter fraud.
“From my conversation with constituents, there is a sense that same day or election day voting could give a fog of potential nefariousness. I have faith in our clerks and the secretary to have fair elections but I do have concerns over that sentiment, which I believe is false. I’ve heard from constituents who are looking for this underlying amendment and numerous who have great concern.” (HUNT)
It should be beneath any Democrat, and any elected official, to dignify voter fraud myths that have been debunked time and time again and are only ever invoked as a justification for racist and exclusionary policies.
Bad Argument #11: We didn’t have a veto-proof (two-thirds majority) for Election Day Registration, and Baker would have vetoed it.
Several state reps have said this in response to constituents, arguing that they themselves don’t oppose Election Day Registration but that the votes aren’t there in the caucus and they wanted to do something. None of them are willing to name the colleagues that are the roadblocks; they just seek to absolve themselves of all blame.
It is unclear why a study with no funding and no deadline that is never intended to actually happen is the solution to a political question. Given the centralization of power in the House, if the votes are wanted for something, the votes are typically corralled one way or another (when one is in charge, one has many tools at one’s disposal). Framing a fake study as a “consensus, second-best outcome” is an insult to the intelligence of voters, and it also conveniently ignores how many of the people who voted for this study are vehement opponents of Election Day Registration (indeed, almost every Republican voted for it, with the only ones opposing it doing it because they thought even a study was too much).
A Democratic supermajority should not lower its ambitions to cater to a Republican governor, especially now.
Bad Argument #12: If we allowed people to register to vote on Election Day, then people in my district I don’t know—such as college students, recent graduates, renters, working-class people, immigrants, members of BIPOC communities, etc.—might show up to vote and not for me.
No one said this out loud, but it’s the dominant reason why many are opposed. And if they want people not to show up to vote for someone else, they should do the work of engaging with their constituents and welcoming new ones. Indeed, isn’t that what representative democracy is about?
