Bucking the trend
by David Atkins
In spite of all the vote suppression happening in many Republican-controlled states, California is bucking the trend by allowing same-day registration and now a fully online voter registration process:
Beginning next month, Californians for the first time will be able to use the Internet to register to vote, giving them about six weeks of online access to register in time to participate in the Nov. 6 presidential election.
In an advisory sent late Wednesday, the office of Secretary of State Debra Bowen informed the state’s 58 county elections officers that the California Online Voter Registration System is in its final stages of testing and will become operational in early September. Software upgrades are scheduled to be electronically transmitted to the counties Friday, with online training for local officials to be conducted next week.
“It’s really huge,” said Secretary of State Debra Bowen. “I think it will be extremely popular and am very hopeful it will increase voter registration.”
California is not the first state to do this, but it shows the power of governors and state legislatures to make a huge difference in the conduct of democracy. As an activist, one of my biggest wake-up calls after the 2008 election was the gigantic degree to which state politics actually affects the lives in residents in tangible ways often more than does politics in Washington. State politics is also usually easier to influence because the districts are smaller and fewer people are frankly paying attention.
It’s not an overstatement to say that the future of progressive politics in America may depend more on California achieving 2/3 supermajorities in the legislature, than in Nancy Pelosi getting the gavel back. Digby and I have often talked with derision about the “laboratories of the states” creating worse policy than what comes out of Washington. That is true. But it can be a double-edged sword, too. If we ever get full single-payer healthcare in this country, it will be because large states with progressive legislatures implemented it first.
.