Voter registration made easier via Internet

By Rachael Smith

For the Daily

With competitive political races coming to a front this November, the Federal Election Commission and the Michigan Secretary of State have made registration easier for potential Michigan voters by putting registration forms online.

Elizabeth Boyd, Communications Director for the Secretary of State, said the SOS was the first agency to make forms available on the Internet. Making programs easily accessible for the public "has really been a big priority of ours," Boyd said.

Before March 30, when online registration was implemented, the deadline for registration was 30 days prior to elections, Boyd said. With the new policy, voters must postmark their downloaded registration forms by the 30-day deadline.

The Michigan Secretary of State's policy is to accept mailed registrations up to seven days after the deadlines if the postmark is illegible, Boyd said.

Completed forms can be mailed to the appropriate county clerk. If they mail the form in instead of returning it in person, policy states that voters must vote in person in their first election and cannot vote by absentee ballot.

The Federal Higher Education Act, which requires states to facilitate voting especially for university students, also influenced the SOS policy. Boyd said the SOS has "taken as many steps as possible to make (voting) easy for students." But, she added, the policy was implemented to make voting easier for all Michigan residents - not just students.

In Michigan, a new law requires voting registration and driver's license addresses to be the same. The new online registration form for Michigan is combined with the change of address form so that both cards can be renewed at the same time.

Michigan residents submitting the form will be sent a new voter registration card, as well as a driver's license change-of-address sticker by mail.

Shari Katz of the MSA Voice Your Vote Task Force said the group has plans to use the forms in voter registration drives this fall. Forms will be made available across the campus, in residence halls, and in fraternities and sororities.

Katz said the task force will collect the forms and deliver them to the county clerk, so students won't have to worry about mailing them.

One of the group's goals was to "make sure (students) understand that it's easy" to vote, Katz said.

When asked about the new availability of online forms, LSA sophomore Julie Kern was undecided. Kern, who has not yet registered to vote, said she "probably wouldn't download and print off forms" that she would still have to mail in.

Kern said she would support plans like the ones outlined by Katz's group. "If they had some some of booth set up where I could fill out the form and hand it in, I would definitely do it," said Kern.

Registration forms can be accessed at www.sos.state.mi.us/election/vote.html.