[EL] Senate hearing on Elections

[Doug Hess]

It's important to remember that "automated" and "modernized" are adjectives
that everybody can applaud, like "accountability" in school reform, but the
devil is in the details. If automated systems are designed such that
unregistered populations disproportionately benefit, thus increasing the
fairness of elections in one important respect, than that's great. If these
changes end up having the unintended consequence of easing registration
disproportionately for those already disproportionately registered, then
it's a step backwards. :)

Several agencies have shown that the NVRA's voter registration sections can
be implemented effetively the old fashioned way, data monitoring is they
key thing (among others). Of course, automating all of the NVRA-covered
agencies at once and equally well would be great, especially as more and
more people conduct business with agencies on-line (although the digital
gap presumably remains noticable).
Douglas R. Hess, PhD
Washington, DC
ph. 202-277-6400
douglasrhess at gmail.com


On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 11:39 AM, <john.k.tanner at gmail.com> wrote:

> As long as NYRA registration is something extra for agency employees to
> do, there will be serious problems.  If. On the other hand, NVRA. Agency
> registration were completely automatic, it could largely replace the
> current antiquated registration system (and save a lot of money)
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Hess <douglasrhess at gmail.com>
> Sender: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:34:48
> To: Election Law<Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
> Subject: [EL] Senate hearing on Elections
>
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