Permanent Absentee Voting On Its Way - What About the Right to Vote?

[Della Au Belatti]

Kudos to HawaiiConCon.org member Al Beeman for his advocacy on voting issues, and for his recent letter to the Hon. Advertiser editor on permanent absentee voting. Keeping our fingers crossed...I hope the Governor signs this good bill into law.

Now what about embedding the "Right to Vote" into our Constitution - it could be made explicit in Aritcle II that citizens have an inherent right to vote. This kind of language would give us the constitutional mandate to enact same-day or election day voter registration that has stalled at the Legislature in the past.

[Fran]

What is the reason that the same day voter registration gets stalled? I firmly believe we would have a much larger voter turnout if it were possible to register at the polls.

[Della Au Belatti]

I am not sure why Election Day voter registration has specifically stalled in Hawaii, but the biggest concerns expressed when you look at what goes on in other states are voter fraud and possible logistical problems at polling stations on Election Day.

Its interesting to me, however, that several (8, I think) states have Election Day registration, and that three of them (Minnesota, Maine and Wisconsin) have had Election Day registration for more than 30 years without much problems. This would certainly be an idea that could be raised as an issue at a ConCon.