Citizens of Illinois are required to register if they choose to vote, but things are now different for Oregon, where the state legislature has just passed a bill making it so residents must choose to opt out of the voting process.

House Bill 2177, known as the “New Motor Voter Bill,” automatically registers all eligible citizens of Oregon to vote. On Monday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed the first bill to automatically register citizens over the age of 18 who either receive or renew their driver’s licenses.JT

According to Tony Green, a spokesman for Oregon Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins, there are around 2.2 million registered voters in Oregon, And 800,000 more are eligible but not registered. He says this new law is expected to get half of those people to contribute to the polls. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-oregon-automatic-voter-registration-20150317-story.htmlJT

Many newly eligible students here at the University aren’t registered despite booths on the quad, some RSOs and other voices on campus urging them to do so.

“I just don’t want to register to vote because I don’t think I am educated enough. I don’t know the process of registering, but it’s just confusing what’s going on,” said Brianna Ward, a freshman in DGS. “What they are doing in Oregon seems cool though.”

The voter accessibility involved in this new bill is exciting, as it demonstrates what American democracy should look like. Automatically registering anyone in the state of Oregon with a driver’s license or state ID creates a bigger turnout at the polls, which is a good thing. It should be fairly easy for eligible voters to participate in elections.

A federal law already makes it so that in all states one can register to vote when filling out their paperwork for a driver’s license. But, this new law in Oregon does it automatically. Louisiana has a similar system for registering teens as they near voting age: they can pre-register to vote as they apply for driving permits, so that when they turn of age they are already in the system, but nothing of this magnitude has been done in any other state.

A few days after my 18th birthday, I registered to vote online, and the entire process took around 10 minutes. But then, even though I registered, I was only set up to vote at my hometown polls. I moved to the University and had to fill out new forms to change my residency.

What was a simple process became much more complicated as I became a college student. My registering should have been easy; however, it ended up taking a significant amount of effort. Other students may have avoided registering because they weren’t knowledgeable of the procedures or willing to put in the time to learn them.

“I just never (decided to register) … it never came up,” said Yoni Shapiro, a freshman in Engineering. “I don’t know the process of registering; I hear it isn’t easy. But I plan to do it soon. I don’t know like, how do you register? Is it online?”

The more hurdles citizens are given to reach votership, the fewer eligible voters there will be. This isn’t a democratic way to go about electing any official. Everyone should have access to the vote, and Oregon has set in place a law that makes this possible.

Those who oppose this new bill might argue that young voters will dominate the polls in Oregon with uneducated views and opinions. On the other hand, perhaps newly registered voters will enjoy the ease of registration and be inspired to educate themselves on the matters important to them.

At its worst, Oregon’s new law will have little effect on whether the state’s residents vote in the upcoming election. But at its best, it will help create new voters who would have otherwise not been heard and make it easier on those who have yet to register.

Leah is a freshman in Media.

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