To make Hawaii a place where we all can thrive, everyone needs to be engaged in addressing Hawaii’s challenges. Participating in government is an important part of that. Yet fewer than 4 in 10 of those who could vote in Hawaii did so in the 2018 general election.

So it’s good news that legislators are turning to technology to give democracy a boost by advancing automatic voter registration (AVR) bills. Enacting AVR, as 17 other states and the District of Columbia have done, would eliminate an unnecessary barrier to voter participation by automatically registering eligible voters when they obtain or renew their driver’s license or state ID or file a change of address.

By eliminating the inaccuracies and manual labor of handling paper forms, AVR could save the state almost $600,000. Let’s help seniors, low-income working families struggling to stay afloat, students and others become active voters.

Let’s enact AVR.

Gavin Thornton

Executive director, Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice

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