States from Oregon to New Jersey and Washington to Maryland have joined us in passing Automatic Voter Registration. It’s time for other state leaders to modernize their voting systems.

Maryland PIRG and our national network have a long history of working on the ground to increase voter participation. Through the New Voters Project and Community Voters Project, we have accumulated a vast wealth of knowledge about what processes work and what it takes to get citizens registered — as well as the local relationships we need to organize key stakeholders to advocate for modernization. Getting more people registered to vote and moving our country toward universal registration are among the best strategies for increasing voter participation.

In Maryland, any time you interact with the MVA you are automatically registered to vote if you are eligible. Automatic voter registration is a vital step toward a more fair and equal democracy, but most states don’t have this program. Maryland PIRG and our national network want to make automatic voter registration a reality in every state and expand the program to more state agencies. 

And as we see a surge in interest in vote by mail in Maryland, and nationwide, we need to improve our vote by mail system to make it more efficient, effective, and secure. For example, we should be making ballot drop boxes permanent; improving ballot tracking; and, creating a permanent mail-in voter list.

These are just some of the commonsense reforms we can take to increase civic participation and build a stronger democracy.

Top photo: Alexandru Nika via Shutterstock.com