Rights Don’t Require Registration

In America, as in any democracy, the right to vote is supposed to be sacred. But unlike other rights, this one comes with paperwork. Before you can cast a ballot, you have to get yourself on the voter rolls. If you don’t, you’re out of luck. Missouri, like most states, makes registration your responsibility. You can register online these days, which is far easier than the old days when you had to fill out an application by hand and deliver it in person or mail it to the election authority. But even online, it’s still on you. If you forget, if you move, if you miss the deadline, you’re silenced. You don’t get to vote.

Think about it: would we ever accept this burden for other rights? Imagine having to file forms at the courthouse before you could speak freely at a town hall. Or imagine having to obtain government approval before attending church. Yes, it’s absurd. Yet when it comes to voting, the most fundamental right in a democracy, we shrug indifferently and call it normal.

It wasn’t always this way. In the early days of the Republic, you simply showed up, proved who you were, and voted. It wasn’t until the late 1800s and early 1900s—the so-called Progressive Era—that registration became the rule. Reformers said it would prevent fraud, and indeed, it made a big dent in voter fraud, but it also kept newly naturalized citizens, poor people, and minorities away from the polls. On a more sinister level, it also introduced a new form of gatekeeping. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and other tricks soon followed, turning registration into a tool of voter suppression.

Fast-forward to now. Here in Missouri, we’ve taken a bold step forward. Registration entered the 21st century by allowing citizens to register online. Though it’s convenient, it’s not automatic. Your information still gets reviewed before it’s accepted. And the burden still falls on you. But here’s an interesting point: the state already checks your information on the back end. If you move, get married, or die, local election officials and the Secretary of State’s office cross-check databases, including property records, death records, and driver’s license data, to keep the rolls up to date. That’s a lot of work, but it proves the system for checking your eligibility is already in place.

So the question now is: why stop there? If the state is already doing the heavy lifting of verifying your eligibility, why not flip the script and use those same data sources to automatically register you from the start? Other states have already taken steps. In California and Oregon, a trip to the DMV counts as voter registration. It’s not completely thorough, as not everyone has a driver’s license, but it’s a step in the right direction. Surprisingly, some creative folks in the Missouri state legislature are also thinking about it. House Bill 879 proposed using data from agencies like the Department of Revenue, Social Services, Health and Senior Services, and local housing authorities. These agencies already hold the information needed to determine eligibility. It’s just a matter of connecting the dots. Unfortunately, HB 879 died in committee, as did similar bills in prior years. But at least some politicians are considering it.

Automatic voter registration puts the burden on the government to prove that you’re ineligible—not on you to prove you’re eligible. The bottom line is that voting is a right. And rights shouldn’t come with red tape.

Every time we make it harder to vote, democracy weakens. Every time we lower the barriers to voting, democracy grows stronger. Automatic voter registration isn’t just a bureaucratic tweak. It’s a statement that the ballot box should never be wrapped with red tape. In Missouri and beyond, the doors of democracy are meant to stay open for everyone.

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