Colorado state has one of the highest voter turnouts in the United States, because its vote-by-mail system allows residents to bypass long lines at polling places, Democracy Now! reported in November 2019. Colorado voting measures also include automatic voter registration with driver’s license services, the extension of voting to people on parole, and allowances for some 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections. As a result, Amy Goodman reported, Colorado is “considered an example for states needing to expand voter access at a time when Republican legislatures and statehouses across the country are attempting to suppress the vote.”
The report by Democracy Now! featured Colorado’s secretary of state, Jena Griswold. Griswold told Democracy Now! that Colorado offers same-day voter registration. “So an eligible person can literally go to the polls today, register to vote and cast their ballot.”
Open democracy requires full voter participation. States not making registration easy are effectively undermining this aim, but Colorado’s system shows how other states could make their elections more democratic.
Source: “Colorado Has One of The Highest Voter Turnouts In The Country. Here’s How They Did It,” Democracy Now!, November 5, 2019, https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/5/colorado_mail_in_voting_voter_turnout.
Student Evaluator: Kenzie Parker (Sonoma State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips (Sonoma State University)
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