- Marc E. Elias
Co-Chair - Trevor Potter
Co-Chair - Doug Chapin
Director of Election Initiatives for the Pew Center on the States, a division of the Pew Charitable Trusts - Pedro A. Cortés
Pennsylvania Secretary of State - Matthew M. Damschroder
Deputy Director, Franklin County Board of Elections - John C. Danforth
Former U.S. Senator, Missouri - Thomas A. Daschle
Former Majority Leader and U.S. Senator, South Dakota - Harold E. Ford, Jr.
Former U.S. Representative, Tennessee - John C. Fortier
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research - Dean C. Logan
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder / County Clerk - Thomas E. Mann
The Brookings Institution - Susan Molinari
Former U.S. Representative, New York - Ralph Munro
Former Washington Secretary of State - Norman J. Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
News Update: Utah Gov’s Bipartisan Commission Unanimously Recommends Voter Registration Modernization to facilitate and automate registration.
Our Service Members Suffer
Military service members and their families are blocked from voting by problems with our election administration system that arise at two basic points: voter registration, and absentee balloting. While much attention has been paid to obstacles created by absentee ballot programs, voting problems for military voters often start with the registration system. In fact, the Director of the Federal Voter Assistance Program at the Pentagon recently said that “the military voter registration process is exceptionally complex… is tied in with the absentee ballot application process, and is subject to exceptional opportunities for errors.” Registration problems occur in large part because of the mobility of military personnel and their families, and the need for them to file old-fashioned paper forms when they are transferred or deployed in order to register or change addresses.
The men and women who are fighting for our democracy are often not able to participate in it. While U.S. Census Bureau data indicate that 71% of Americans were registered to vote for the November 2008 general election, according to the Election Assistance Commission, the military has a registration rate of only 64%. As a result of these unique challenges, servicemen and women who live in the United States vote at a rate 10% lower than the general population, according to the 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey.
Upgrading to a modern registration system that is automatic and permanent will alleviate many of these problems. As is often the case, the military is at the cusp of innovation in this area. A modern voter registration system should use the model of the Selective Service list to eliminate inefficiencies and guarantee that all eligible men and women in uniform and their families can cast a ballot that counts.
Voter Registration in the Armed Services
Absentee Ballots in the Armed Services
The Selective Service Solution
For a comprehensive analysis of the research related to military voting and voter registration, please read
Registering Military and Overseas Citizens by the Brennan Center for Justice.