Automatic Voter Registration Gains Bipartisan Momentum

Governing: Republicans and Democrats are often on opposing ends of voting rights debates. But a new law to automatically register people to vote received overwhelming bipartisan support in Massachusetts.

The state’s Republican governor, Charlie Baker, signed the bill on Thursday, and it will take effect in January 2020.

Oregon was the first state, in 2015, to adopt an automatic voter registration (AVR) system. Since then, 12 states and the District of Columbia have passed similar laws, and 20 states this year have introduced automatic voting registration proposals, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

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