Because poor people have less mobility, access to child care, and free time than more well-to-do people. If you make voting easy, more poor people will vote.
And the GOP hates that, because a lot of them think that poor people want to sit around and vote themselves handouts.
Let’s step back from the details and consider the overall picture of the voting process.
Registration was invented to reduce fraud, wasn’t it? The idea was that if you registered one day, then came to the polls months later with the same identity claim, you were probably a genuine, entitled-to-vote citizen.
Then the register & vote on the same day process was introduced in some states.
With instant computerized access to databanks, is this 2-step process necessary any more? How about devising a single-step process where you scan your driver’s license, vote, and the database would lock you out if you tried it again on the same day?
A provision would have to be made for those without licenses, but that’s the same provision that must be made for the registration process now.
FYI - Voting in Oregon is done exclusively by mail-in. Wiki.
So, the automatic voter registration is just one more move to make the process seamless.
Voting in Oregon is 100% mail-in, so I can more or less guarantee you we won’t be seeing any long lines or voting machine errors. 
Are you seriously saying that the possibility of being chosen for jury duty is an incentive to avoid registering?
That’s some pretty shitty civic responsibility if that’s the way people feel.
I’m going to make a prediction. As the automatic voter registration is done from DMV records and we KNOW that the GOP are against expanding the voter rosters, there will be a lawsuit, maybe not in Oregon, but in another state that tries this, in which the GOP comically will argue that such a law discriminates against people who don’t have licenses. Thus trying to get rid of the law, reducing the total number of voters, on the pretense that they actually give a damn
We’ve had automatic voter registration for federal elections in Canada for some time. It’s a box you tick on your income tax return, to have Rev Can pass your name and address on to Elections Can.
It’s not foolproof - I’ve not been included on the voter’s list for my riding in both of the last two federal elections, and have had to swear myself in at the polling booth, but it’s pretty effective.
If you want to increase voter turnout, make election day a mandatory holiday. Easy. Well, hard to get passed, but easy to implement.
What a splendid idea! Holds out hope for a massive increase in voter registration and perhaps even turnout. Surely the Republicans will greet this development with wild enthusiasm and joy!
Me? Tequila and bongwater, why do you ask?
vote by mail is even easier. We’ve been doing it for years (Washington)
Making voting day a mandatory holiday would make Republicans’ heads explode.
Oregon votes by mail, so really registering is the largest hurdle to voting. It will be interesting to see if turnout changes that much. I think that it potentially could. Are there studies that estimate how many more people are expected to get mailed a ballot because of this?
FiveThirtyEight had an article on this. They cite some studies that show that automatic or easier registration has some effect on voter turnout, but maybe not as much as would guess. On the other hand, most of those studies are in states where you still have to drag yourself to the polls, which is arguably a bigger hurdle than registering. I think it could make a lot bigger difference in Oregon. We will see though.
I prefer early voting. There’s no such thing as a mandatory holiday and we shouldn’t introduce such a thing in a free country.
Why not?
Someone has to staff the hospitals, fire stations, and McDonalds.
Heh. McDonalds.
The holiday could be as mandatory as New Years day or the 4th of July, whereby the bulk of the population has the day off to vote.
I’m actually okay with the idea, but after experiencing 100% mail-in ballots, that will remain my first choice for making voting easier.
Because our little friend there wants the GOP to win, and it would be harder if there were more voters. He won’t tell you that, but his posting history suggests it
I’m assuming that Republicans opposed the move to mail in ballots? That’s suggested by their collective evilness, but I don’t recall hearing much about it. Or what kind of arguments they mounted against it. Assuming that they did resist, because they are evil.
You were there, Procrustus? What kind of arguments did they offer? (I am, of couirse. willing to be astounded if you tell me they didn’t resist this cromulent nugget of progress…)
In Oregon, a lot of the opposition was (is) based on fears of voter fraud and coercion. Neither of these has been shown to be substantive. And yeah, it was primarily orchestrated by anti-tax conservative Republicans.