Washington is the second state in the country to allow
online voter registration under a new state law signed by Governor Christine Gregoire.
"This bill acknowledges that technology and times have changed,"
said Sen. Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland. "We do many things on the Internet
today."
Students will attest to that. WashPIRG worked with ASUW last November on the New Voters Project - which registered 1,900 student voters in just a few weeks. All registrations were in the form of paper forms that students filled out on campus thanks to the arduous work of PIRG and ASUW volunteers who commonly asked "can't we just have people do this online?"
The answer then was no, but thanks to this new law the answer is yes. This is especially significant news to students, who are know for both lower voter registration rates and an obsession with the internet.
"I think that it's going to be particularly helpful for connecting
with young people," said Secretary of State Sam Reed, who noted that
the state already faces challenges in getting younger people to
register to vote.
Student organizers hope to see an increase in youth voter registration with this new measure, and are planning to adjust their voter outreach tactics to work with the new system.
