Pennsylvania, a battleground state that might play an outsize function within the 2024 presidential election, will start to routinely register new voters as a part of its driver’s license and state ID approval course of, officers stated on Tuesday.
This system, which was introduced by Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, is just like these supplied in 23 different states and the District of Columbia, in accordance with the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Voters should meet sure eligibility necessities, which embody being a U.S. citizen and a Pennsylvania resident for at the least 30 days earlier than an election. Additionally they have to be at the least 18 years outdated on the date of the subsequent election.
“Computerized voter registration is a common sense step to make sure election safety and save Pennsylvanians time and tax {dollars},” Mr. Shapiro stated in a statement. “Residents of our Commonwealth already present proof of id, residency, age and citizenship on the D.M.V. — all the data required to register to vote — so it makes good sense to streamline that course of with voter registration.”
Within the 2020 election and the midterm races final yr, Pennsylvania was a hotbed of falsehoods about voter fraud, promoted by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies. Republicans within the state have mounted a collection of unsuccessful authorized challenges over voters’ eligibility and absentee ballots that didn’t have dates written on their return envelopes, which a state legislation requires.
Whereas voting rights teams heralded Pennsylvania’s steps to develop entry to the polls, Mr. Trump’s loyalists attacked them and sought to sow additional mistrust about voting integrity within the state.
“I can promise you, there shall be no citizenship verification,” Stephen Miller, a high White Home adviser to Mr. Trump, wrote on X, the social media platform previously often called Twitter.
The transfer to automated voter registration, which begins Tuesday, comes as each Republicans and Democrats keep watch over the state because the 2024 race heats up.
The state the place President Biden was born, Pennsylvania might decide not solely whether or not he’s elected to a second time period, but additionally whether or not Democrats preserve management of the intently divided Senate. Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat in his third time period, is going through a key re-election check.
