Just in time for November election, SOS allows online voter registration
by Brian Leubitz
It is a good day for democracy in California. Legislation that allowed for online registration was enacted last year and today online voter reg kicked off. The first Californians to register online did so even before the official announcement:
California’s new one-click, online voter registration went live early Wednesday, but before Secretary of State Debra Bowen could officially make that announcement at an 11:30 a.m. news conference, 3,000 new voters already had used the system to register.
That response, Bowen said, was triggered only by “a few tweets” from some county elections officials who spread the news via Twitter earlier in the morning. …
“This is great news for democracy,” she said. “One of the main reasons people don’t register to vote is because they are never asked to do so. Now, someone can ask them with an email that includes a link to online registration.”(VCStar)
Online registration requires that your signature be on file with the DMV, but is otherwise smooth sailing.
Register online today at RegistertoVote.ca.gov. The deadline to vote in the November 6 election is Oct. 22, so get those e-forms in right away.
Late yesterday afternoon, having gotten an email from one of my activist friends, I logged on to rtv.ca.gov to do a “re-register w/o changes” as a test. The process went smoothly except that it failed to note my preference for permanent vote-by-mail status when I printed it out for signing and mailing.
When I checked at the SOS elections office, one staffer said it would have “taken” in the fully digital version, but the print out version is actually part of the federal register online version… Which made no sense to me because the printout showed I chose English for my mailed materials and in the same box (left side) but nothing in the area for permanent vbm status (right side).
I kept screenshots of everything just in case, so the staffer transferred me into the heart of SOS’ digital operations, where the next staffer listened to my statement, made notes, and gave me an email address where I should send pdf versions to illustrate the problem…
So, we’ll see.
I do a lot of voter registration and this online deal, if it really works well, will be a great gift to the voting public if all the bugs are found and removed.
“I am a California resident living in the United States.”
Don’t need to be a resident and a citizen?
“To register online you will need your California driver license or identification card number, the last four digits of your social security number and your date of birth.”
unless these are free this consitutes a poll tax right?
How many registrations have been done till date?
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