Lewis-backed bill would automatically register most to vote (Atlanta, Washington: live, association)

[tonygeorgia]

WASHINGTON —

Lewis-backed bill would automatically register most to vote | www.ajc.com

Democrats who spent the 2012 election cycle on defense against voting restrictions are now urging near-universal voter registration.Atlanta U.S. Rep. John Lewis and several colleagues are pushing a bill that would automatically register people to vote whose names are on existing records held by departments of motor vehicles, public assistance programs and other databases, unless people opt out of being registered. It also would require states to allow registration up to Election Day.The bill faces significant Republican roadblocks to passage, including in Georgia, where Secretary of State Brian Kemp doesn’t like the idea. Kemp said it would have only exacerbated Fulton County’s difficulties in November’s election, which included long lines and an enormous pile of provisional ballots.

After a presidential election in which fights over ballot access were as charged as those over policy, the politics of voting remains divisive. Last week the National Association of Secretaries of State met in Washington, and the liberal Brennan Center for Justice and conservative Heritage Foundation staged rival seminars with secretaries of state delivering their views on voting proposals.Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center called the voter registration system “currently the biggest barrier to free and fair elections in the United States.”

[Tarzanman]

This won't ever happen in red Georgia. Republicans certainly don't want to make it easier for people to vote. They have made considerable efforts to make it harder to vote in many states (including GA) over the past few years