Sep 8, 2009 -- National Journal: Lawmakers Must Cross Aisle On Vote Reforms
Campaign Lawyers Are Mounting A Bipartisan Campaign To Modernize Voter Registration. Will Congress Listen?
By: Eliza Newlin Carney

At a time when partisan rifts threaten to paralyze Capitol Hill, it's a shame that more people don't follow the example of Republican Trevor Potter and Democrat Marc Elias .

The two prominent election lawyers have set aside past disagreements to rally behind a shared cause: modernizing the nation's outdated voter registration system. Together, they have set up a Committee to Modernize Voter Registration that could give pending congressional legislation a shot in the arm.

Senate Rules and Administration Chairman Charles Schumer , D-N.Y., has said he is drafting a voter registration bill, but the issue has been a flash point for partisan differences. Democrats tend to assail obstacles that block voters from registering, while Republicans fixate on safeguards that would prevent voter fraud.

Potter and Elias have set out to convince lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that an automatic voter registration system would solve both problems.

They've won the endorsement of high-profile local and national players from both parties; set up a Web site that urges visitors to contact their members of Congress; and brought in voting and elections expert Jonah Goldman , a vice president with the Glover Park Group, to help with strategy and communications.

There is "a baseline for bipartisan reform in this area," said Potter at an invitation-only lunch last week at the Pew Center on the States to announce the committee. Potter, who represented John McCain on the campaign trail last year, recalled how his time was increasingly sucked up by voter registration controversies.

"I spent an enormous amount of time focused on the actual mechanics of the election and the voting process," said Potter. "It was kind of an unpleasant surprise."

Elias, former general counsel to the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign, told a similar story. During more than six months representing recently-seated Democratic Sen. Al Franken in the Minnesota Senate recount, Elias found himself wading through mountains of documents in a legal dispute with Franken's Republican opponent, former Sen. Norm Coleman , that boiled down to how Minnesotans register to vote.

Both Potter and Elias described finding common ground with their counterparts on the other side of the aisle. Amid the barrage of daily press conferences, noted Elias, he and Coleman's lawyers began to agree that "there ought to be a better way to do this. You could see the two sides, as a matter of policy, coming together."

The trick will be to generate the same spirit of cooperation on Capitol Hill. The new committee has yet to outline a specific legislative proposal, though it has released general principles. Concurrent with the committee's unveiling, the Pew Center on the States released an issue brief detailing problems that make the voter registration system "inaccurate, costly and inefficient," and outlining Pew's recommended fixes.

These include replacing handwritten paper forms with technology that automatically places voters on the rolls using official databases such as motor vehicle and public assistance records; making registration more portable for voters who move; and imposing federal mandates while leaving registration in the hands of states.

This latest push adds to similar efforts by groups such as the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

"There's really no better time than now to have this discussion," said Doug Chapin , director of election initiatives for the Pew Center on the States, noting that the "relative quiet" of an off-election year could help. At the same time, Congress must act now if changes are to be in place for the next presidential race.

Chapin pointed to bipartisan legislation to fix the problems plaguing military and overseas voters as evidence that lawmakers can find common ground. In July the Senate approved the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act by voice vote as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill.

Still, partisan divisions over voter registration, as on so many other fronts, remain alive and well in Congress. Just ask Rep. Zoe Lofgren , D-Calif., who has introduced a modest bill, the Voter Registration Modernization Act , that would promote the use of Internet registration by state officials.

Only a handful of lawmakers have signed on to her bill, none of them Republicans. And the House Administration panel's Elections Subcommittee has had a devil of a time moving the issue forward.

"It has been a fight to get any election legislation through the committee," said one Democratic congressional aide. "It is a very partisan issue, so it is a challenge." The aide added: "No matter what issue we're discussing, the minority brings up the issue of voter fraud," which Democrats (and many election experts) maintain is a paper tiger.

Democrats saw a glimmer of hope in a GOP bill to protect military voters, introduced by Rep. Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., the Military Voter Protection Act . They speculated that McCarthy's and Lofgren's bills could move at the same time. But McCarthy rejects that idea outright.

"It would be a shame to once again delay MVP Act reforms that enjoy bipartisan support, and instead push through what could be other divisive election bills," McCarthy told National Journal . The real shame is that lawmakers can't bring themselves to reach across the aisle, as their campaign lawyers appear prepared to do.