The Pennsylvania Senate took a great step in the right direction for voting rights. The Senate unanimously passed SB37 to establish an online voter registration system.
Fair Elections Legal Network has been a longtime proponent of the benefits of online, or electronic, voter registration. It’s more affordable, in Washington state the cost of processing an online registration is $.45 more than a full dollar less than the $1.55 it costs to process a paper form. Electronic registration also dramatically improves accuracy in the registration process.
The recent push for Voter ID bills and restrictions on third party voter registration organizations across the country has made clear that some are determined to make it more difficult to vote in 2012 than it was in 2010. Some legislators, such as Florida State Senator Michael Bennett, have said as much when making statements like "[t]his is something people died for.