Lawmakers debate voting reform

ANNAPOLIS - Students with the university's chapter of the Maryland Public Interest Research Group are trying to establish Election Day registration in the state, a move they say will enfranchise student voters.

Incidents like the more than 350 university students who were forced to cast provisional ballots in this year's presidential election despite meeting registration deadlines make the same-day registration necessary, advocates said.

"Students put in the effort to get their registrations through, but still their votes were not counted," freshman mechanical engineering major and MaryPIRG member Timothy Facemire said. "It's very important to get involved."

If successful, the push would mean residents of the state could register to vote on the same day they would vote. Currently, the state requires that people register 21 days before they vote.

Legislation under debate in Annapolis would call for a referendum that, if passed would make a one-sentence constitutional amendment allowing for same-day registration, said Sen. Mike Lenett (D-Montgomery County), and the details of how to implement it will be determined later. After the outcome of the proposed referendum, the General Assembly will vote on the amendment.

The process will take three years, and the earliest it could be implemented is 2012. The first step in the process is passing a bill to create a statewide referendum on the issue in 2010. The Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee heard the bill yesterday, and MaryPIRG members arrived to lobby committee vice chairman Sen. Roy Dyson (D-Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's).

Del. Kirill Reznik (D-Montgomery) told the students that the House has the momentum to pass the measure but is looking for similar support in the Senate. The bill already has 16 sponsors in the Senate, but Dyson is the linchpin, MaryPIRG campus organizer Greg Schwab said.

Facemire, one of Dyson's constituents, met with the senator after the hearing to persuade him of the need for Election Day registration in light of voting problems in Prince George's County. Dyson offered no guarantees, Facemire said.

Freshman English major David Bransfield testified before the committee along with a handful of other witnesses, with every one in favor of same-day registration.

"The right to vote is too important to be cut off by an arbitrary date," Lenett said before the committee.

Representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People touted the fact that eight other states have adopted same-day registration with largely successful results. Election judges said it would require no extra work on their part and could almost entirely eliminate paper ballots. Iowa, the state that most recently adopted same-day registration, saw a two-thirds decrease in provisional ballots on Election Day.

"People who move around a lot or live in areas where it's hard to register get disenfranchised under the current system," Bransfield said. "And it's easier to cheat the system with provisional ballots than it is with same-day registration."

Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George's) said there were a lot of positives in the same-day registration measure that merit discussion but could not say if it would get a favorable vote. Rosapepe has sponsored the Student Voting Rights Act, which also seeks to address enfranchisement - it would require institutions to hire elections coordinators and provide information and resources for students looking to register to vote - it will be heard in a few weeks.

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