Oregon should return to same-day registration. We have the largest gap in the country between youth and general voting rates, and states with same-day registration have among the lowest age gaps and highest overall voting rates. Why didn't the resolution on this issue get a vote last session? Was there not enough support, and if so, why not?

"but hopefully there is one issue that can garner consensus -- using our right to vote". ?

Not hardly, true blues would prefer we not be able to vote on anything by initiative. Having control of our many policly making institutions you also prefer we not vote on any light rail or other major expenditures. Heck Blues prefer not to even clean up the registration and voting process itself by requiring ID. Now how is it you are pro-voting?

I guess I'm fake blue.

Thanks Krosten, my youngest son turned 18 about a month ago. I'll take him to the local DMV and get him registered tomorrow.

I'm curious, though, who has said we shouldn't need ID to register?

JamesX, "I'm curious, though, who has said we shouldn't need ID to register?" Uh the DMV, the State, the governor. I'm curious, do you think ID is needed to register? If that's the case, you must also know that people noit so Blue have been trying to get the state to require ID for years. Who do you think has stood in the way and prevented that requirement? I'll give you a hint. They're Blue.

Correction

If that's the case, you must also NOT know that people not so Blue have been trying to get the state to require ID for years.

Registered and voting.

Evan is a secret Repubnagte plant... either that or he is drunk and/ or off his meds.

Steve, are you so against postcard registration that you want to go back to the old days where someone had to appear in front of a qualified individual and register in person?

I recall being about to take the class to be one of those people when postcard registration started.

Back in the days when one had to appear in front of an official person to register, someone a friend knew wanted to register without stating a party. The registration person wouldn't let her leave without naming a party. So the woman said OK, how about socialist?

If you want ID to register, would you restrict the registrars to duly sworn public employees? Would a party or other political organization have to pay one of these employees in order to be able to register potential voters at a fair booth?

Scapegoating is one thing. Failure to answer logistical questions is something else entirely.

LT, Where are you coming from? Old days? I mean why all the speculation about who would do what to register people. Oregon could simply adopt any number of registration policies the many other states who today require ID use.

And what question did I not answer?
JamesX's was the only question I was asked and I answered him. The DMV, the State and the governor, by policy, say ID is not required. And from what I can tell anyone Blue here agrees with that approach. I haven't the slightest idea why you do. Many, or most other states have that very fundemental and prudent policy of requiring ID and without any old days problems.

There are registration forms scattered far and wide across our fair city, from the Multnomah County Elections Office to PSU to the DMV to, sometimes, your local grocery store.

Not to be a pain in the ass but... I just wanted to point out that this is BlueOregon, which should encompass more than the "fair city."

Steve, the information Colin Maloney provided is what I'm familiar with.

Jenni, thanks for the answer, and all the work you do.

Steve and his rightie friends are so obsessed with making sure illegal immigrants don't vote (though they can't identify a single case in Oregon) that they forgot to notice that they already won the ID-to-register fight. It's over. You won. Get over yourself.

Have they/we? I've been voting in Oregon for quite some time now and I honestly don't remember ever showing any state employee my ID. I simply filled out a form, gave/mailed it to someone, and got a ballot in the mail. I could be a German Shepherd for all the state knows. While I am 100% against illegal aliens (round 'em up, ship 'em out), I doubt they vote in significant numbers. Most are illiterate peasants who come from an ultracorrupt kleptocracy, so their interest in Anglo democracy is limited to non-existent.

And Kristin, thanks for the reminder. Does that mean I still have time to register as a Republican so I can vote for Ron Paul in the primary :)

The really amazing thing about the post is that this is the 26th comment on a column about the voter registration deadline. The comments on BO have bordered on the trivial for the last week.

Kristin's post is just a reminder, yet some people have shown how emotionally stressed out and extremely uptight they are over this small issue. Reminders are great, but not to be stressed out over.

Roxanne is right. And there are also bigger fish to fry than this...

Now how is it you are pro-voting?

It would be better if political offices were filled by lot, and that we only voted on the Generals.

It's not really hatred...it's self-imposed ignorance to the point of no-return fear.

Well, I for one THANK YOU for the reminder! I just moved back to Oregon from a 5 year exile in one of those hideously scary right wing states. I didn't know that you couldn't register on the day you vote. Now I just need to figure out how to make that happen by tomorrow! And not for nothing, I'm giddy being back in Oregon. You don't know how special it is here until you are forced to live in one of those "other" states!