South Dakota Community Action, a Sioux Falls group led by Paul Thronson and Nick Zachariasen, has submitted and received LRC review of a sixth draft initiative, this one proposing automatic voter registration for every eligible adult in South Dakota.
Very simply, SDCA’s initiative would have any state or county government entity that gets a resident’s address “process a voter registration on that person’s behalf.” The initiative would also automatically register high school graduates. The person in question would be given a chance to pick a party; if the person expresses no preference, the registration is marked independent. The initiative would allow residents to decline registration.
LRC suggests editing the draft to specify that the school or government agency shall submit the registration to the county auditor unless the resident asks to submit it herself.
The Brennan Center for Justice notes that sixteen states and the District of Columbia automatically register voters. As I have noted previously, automatic voter registration makes voter registration “more accurate, efficient, and cost-effective” and appears to increase voter participation.
The LRC’s letter to SDCA is dated July 2. If SDCA turned around right away and submitted a draft to the Attorney General for review, they may not receive the necessary reply and go-ahead to circulate their initiative petition until after Labor Day, leaving them just two months to collect 16,961 signatures to place automatic voter registration on the 2020 ballot.
We already know the SDGOP won’t like it because they don’t like voters. Thet overturn voters’ initiatives and find ways to make voting harder. Nope, they’re not gonna like this at all.
Since all males have to register at 18 for selective service, why not include females and then all people registered would be transferred for voter registration doing this on a national level.Time to put a stop to voting harder.Also if convicts have done their time, they should be able to vote.