Maine Equal Justice testifies in support of LD 1126, online voter registration for Maine

On April 5th, Kate Brennan, Organizing and Community Outreach Director for Maine Equal Justice, offered this testimony to the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs in favor of LD 1126, which would create an online voter registration system for Maine.

Helpful links:

• Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs hearing 4/05
• Portland Press Herald: Bill would allow online voter registration in Maine by 2023

Senator Luchini, Representative Caiazzo, and members of the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs. My name is Kate Brennan and I work with Maine Equal Justice. We are a nonprofit civil legal aid and economic justice organization working to increase economic security, opportunity, and equity for people in Maine.

In our 25 year history, we’ve supported hundreds of low-income community members to register to vote. We support LD 1126, An Act to Create an Online Voter Registration System, because we see how economic realities, systemic racism, and “outdated systems using outdated technology” lead to voter disenfranchisement. We want to work with the Maine legislature to make sure that all people have a voice and can fully participate in our democracy; that income, race, geography, ability does not determine someone’s access to one of the most important rights in our democracy: the right to vote.

Over the years, we’ve helped low-income people navigate the voting process and vote for the first time, against significant odds. Each time it works out and someone gets their “I voted” sticker, it feels like a small miracle. The registration and voting process, as it is currently designed, presents significant barriers for people with limited resources. It takes tremendous effort to help just one person make it happen.

I offered a ride to one of our active volunteers who was registering to vote for the first time. She had recently had a baby, with two young school-aged children as well. She wanted to register to vote badly but without a car or the money to pay for a taxi, she was discouraged. She thought about walking but City Hall was across town. She looked into the mail-in process, but she didn’t have a printer to print the form and mail it in. She has a hearing impairment and it had been difficult getting help at City Hall in the past. As she was filling out her voter registration card, I thought about all the steps it took to get there. Her work schedule and responsibilities at home didn’t give her much time to get to City Hall during open hours. She needed to go when her older kids were at school and she was off from work. We loaded her car seat while we waited for her baby to wake from his nap. We arrived at City Hall with limited time to get through the long line before we had to get her back home to meet the bus for her kids. We very nearly gave up to come back another time. I tried to help her understand the clerk’s instructions when she couldn’t understand due to her hearing impairment. We piled back in the car in a hurry and drove back across town. Online Voter Registration would eliminate the time, stress, and unnecessary barriers that exist in the paper registration system for this mom and so many others with similar life experiences.

I want to note that this mom recently moved. Without Online Voter Registration, she’ll need to go through this process all over again to update her registration. Low-income people are forced to move very frequently to secure safe and stable housing for their families. Many times, we are supporting people to update their registration every couple of years or more when they face displacement or eviction.

We’re here today because we know it doesn’t have to be this way. Nearly 40 other states use an online voter registration process that is time-tested and secure. It’s more convenient and saves states money. The government programs that work best for low-income people are low barrier and accessible by design. The programs that require a lot of red tape, paperwork and bureaucracy are costly and less effective. Our systems must acknowledge the barriers people face when they are poor. There is a growing movement for e-government that simplifies everyday people’s interactions with government, saves money and improves people’s lives. We can do this with voter registration and other government functions here in Maine.

This past year we supported non-partisan voter registration again. We worked with food pantries and community agencies to participate in National Voter Registration Day. We reached out to Head Starts and CAP agencies to make sure low-income families had what they needed to vote in a pandemic. We worked with groups representing tribal members and immigrants supporting their communities to register and vote. It was challenging to say the least to help people register while social distancing. Again, without a printer and copier or scanner, people really struggled to get registered without significant one on one support. If any year made the need for Online Voter Registration crystal clear, it was 2020. While we talked to thousands of people, few people made it through the whole registration process remotely before hitting a barrier. Although the events of this year exacerbated voter disenfranchisement, many of the barriers we saw existed before in some form and will continue beyond the pandemic, unless this legislature takes action.

Much research has been done on the relationship between inequality and voting gaps. These are not isolated examples - we see stark numbers when it comes to low-income people, people of color, tribal members, and other traditionally marginalized groups registering and voting across the country. Here in Maine, a high turnout state, it is no different. I’ve included some links to resources for the committee in my testimony.

Online Voter Registration would make it easier for a lot of people to register to vote, including many people with low-income who have reliable access to the internet. While we fully support it for this reason, we want to acknowledge that OVR won't be the right option for some - especially for people with very low income who do not have reliable access to the internet.

At Maine Equal Justice, we see both situations among the folks with whom we work. That's why we support adding OVR to already-existing methods of registering to vote. Doing so would result in greater overall participation in the democratic process.

Please vote ought to pass on LD 1126.

Thank you again for your time and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.