Oregon considering automatic voter registration

[greenforest32]

The second hearing was held today on the bill which the Secretary of State amended slightly with the aim of getting more buy-in: there was an increase in the opt-out time window for people to refuse registration, what looks like a freeze on the base numbers used to calculate minor party ballot status (in OR minor parties have to collect a certain % of signatures of the total number of registered voters to get on the ballot initially), etc.

http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/05/oregon_secretary_of_state_twea.html

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Republicans are still opposed obviously and no action was taken on the proposal today as there are still negotiations over the state budget. Democrats wanted to increase revenue by about $300m this year by closing some tax credits/deductions but that falls under that 3/5 supermajority requirement mentioned previously, which Democrats are 2 seats short of in both chambers meaning they need Republican votes and Republicans have been insisting on more cuts to the public employee pension system than Democrats have proposed so they (Republicans) blocked the $300m tax increase proposal in the state house. Now negotiations are in the state senate where the Governor is trying to work with both parties to craft a compromise that increases revenue and cuts more deeply into the public employee pension system. There is also the issue of renewing the hospital provider tax (falls under the 3/5 requirement as well), which I'm not sure is being included in this budget bill or in another bill expanding Medicaid to the ACA/Obamacare guidelines.

Also slowing everything down is that Democrats have a 16-14 majority in the state senate but one of the D state senators had a car accident and is recovering at the hospital and, for one technical reason or another, a 15-14 vote doesn't count as a majority the way 16-14 does so there's been some difficulty with that. The senator in the car accident looks to be alright and recovering well though so they should be back sometime this month.

Not quite sure what will happen next:

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but we'll definitely know before the legislative session ends in about two months. One thing I think could be a possibility if it doesn't make it out of this session is the bill coming back in 2014. Up until a 2010 ballot measure mandating annual legislative sessions, Oregon was one of the few remaining states that had legislative sessions every two years. Probably related to that is that the state adopts two-year budgets instead of annual ones, a process still retained after that 2010 ballot measure. So if the 2013 session deals with the budget and Republicans use the 3/5 supermajority requirement as leverage to block this bill, there is potential to pass the proposal in the 2014 session which is about a third the length of the odd year sessions as it shouldn't have to deal with major budget issues.

Of course this is assuming Democrats will really push to pass this. They've been quite content to pat themselves on the back for passing minor tweaks like letting 17 and 16 year-olds "pre-register" to vote. I don't get why they passed that before this.

So yeah, looks like it could be pretty difficult. This is where I get frustrated at basic voting standards being done at the state level and at states with legislatures that are 70-80%+ Democrat sitting on their ass. Hawaii, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, etc could be leading the way on expanding voting rights...

[Peeperkorn]

I will never understand why you need to register to vote in "America".

Use the ing census as the rest of the world. It's not that complicated.

[greenforest32]

*Sigh*

http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-20766-no_license_to_vote.html

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[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Oh for God's sake.

[greenforest32]

Maybe there's still potential? They've called up a vote and passed it out of committee: http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/06/controversial_oregon_voter_reg.html

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I can't believe some random Democratic state senator could block this. The US Attorney General and the AFL-CIO say we should adopt automatic voter registration and in the one state where there's an actual bill on the table this year, it gets killed by some obscure Democratic state senator representing a D+3 district? Come on, this is pathetic.

[Middle-aged Europe]

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The government should stay away from my elections!

[greenforest32]

It passed the state house 32-28 with 3/34 Democrats voting no and 1/26 Republicans voting yes: http://www.katu.com/politics/Oregon-House-backs-automatic-voter-registration-213052061.html

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I don't know, if I had to bet I think it's going to fail in the state senate considering that aforementioned Democratic state senator. Even a vote of 15-15 there would be the end for the bill as Oregon is one of the few states with no Lieutenant-Governor so there isn't currently a way to break a tied vote in the upper legislative chamber. It doesn't look like there will be any Republicans in the state senate supporting it either: http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/06/universal_voter_registration_b.html

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[The Free North]

Freedom State.

The marijuana ballot initiative from the last election begs to differ

[greenforest32]

Yep, it failed in the state senate...

The most recent quarterly revenue forecast showed an unexpected increase of about $200m+ in revenue for the current budget period which ended most of the discussion of that $200m tax increase (and its required 3/5 supermajority vote). Shortly after that Republicans finally relented on the hospital provider tax as there was essentially no way to balance the state budget without it while they also decided against using that 3/5 leverage to force something like a government shut-down. So with those issues' leverage gone and the Medicaid expansion subsequently passed, that left everything in the hands of Democrats in the state senate and that aforementioned Democratic state senator voted no on the automatic voter registration bill:

http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/07/oregon_senate_rejects_universa.html

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Supposedly they could bring the bill back for another floor vote in the state senate before the legislative session ends this week but I don't see how the result is going to change. Maybe some ear-mark "greasing"? But they probably would have done that already if they could.

The proposal could come back in 2015 because Kate Brown (she was the main official pushing for it) is SoS until 2016 and about half of the Oregon state senate is up for election at a time with 2014 being re-election time for the senators elected in 2010. Democrats have a good chance to net at least one seat in the chamber in Nov. 2014 which could offset the above senator. But that's all about two years away...

Congratulations to Betsy Johnson for fighting to keep a needlessly exclusive voter registration process. Excellent work senator, truly excellent work.