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MASSPIRG Students calls for Automatic Voter Registration

Thursday, November 9, 2017
By MASSPIRG Students
Tuesday's election saw very few people coming to the polls - about 27% of registered voters turned out in Boston, with similar numbers elsewhere in the state. There are many reasons for this, but these numbers speak for themselves - we can do better.We need to improve our election system to make it more efficient and to remove unnecessary barriers to participation. Automatic Voter Registration will do just that.

We at MASSPIRG, as part of a 53 member coalition, are calling on the legislature to make Massachusetts the 11th state to enact this critical reform. AVR is a small change that would make a big impact; the bill would register voters whenever they come in contact with a government agency (like going to the RMV) increasing our voter pool while also cutting down on inaccurate or duplicate registrations.

For MASSPIRG this legislation is crucial. Our chapter student Yuval Abraham from UMass Amherst said it best:

"Every two years our MASSPIRG Chapters across the state register thousands of voters and make tens of thousands of contacts to get young people to the polls. With the passage of Automatic Voter Registration we can spend less time registering students and a lot more time making sure they actually make their voices heard and go vote."

Let's strengthen our democracy. Let's pass AVR.

New Voters Project

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