Upgrading Voter Registration

Voter registration systems are intended to ensure access to voting while preventing opportunities for fraud. Yet, America’s registration system is plagued by errors, poorly designed for an increasingly mobile society, reliant on inefficient paper forms, and unnecessarily expensive. In response, the Pew Charitable Trusts continues to partner with election officials, policy makers, technology experts, and other stakeholders to upgrade their voter registration systems, to make them more integrated, modern, and secure, through the following technologies:

• The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC): ERIC is a multi-state partnership that harnesses the latest technology to securely compare state data to better keep voters’ addresses up to date. States’ participation in ERIC promotes more comprehensive and accurate voter rolls and registration systems.
• Online Voter Registration: Online voter registration is an increasingly popular registration option that enhances voter convenience, mitigates costs, and improves data security by eliminating paper, printing, and mail from the process.
• Motor Voter Registration: Voter registration at motor vehicle agencies–commonly referred to as “Motor Voter”–is one of the most common gateways to the voter rolls. As a result, Pew is working with state election officials and motor vehicle administrators to increase interagency coordination and improve Motor Voter systems.

Together, Pew and its state and national partners are building on cutting edge practices to bring voter registration systems into the 21^st century.