{"id":2225030,"date":"2024-04-19T08:48:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T12:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/automatic-voter-registration-exists-to-keep-democrats-in-power-so-why-arent-republicans-fighting-it\/"},"modified":"2024-04-19T08:55:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T12:55:17","slug":"automatic-voter-registration-exists-to-keep-democrats-in-power-so-why-arent-republicans-fighting-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/automatic-voter-registration-exists-to-keep-democrats-in-power-so-why-arent-republicans-fighting-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Aren&#8217;t Republicans Opposing Automatic Voter Registration Aimed at Empowering Democrats?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fautomatic-voter-registration-exists-to-keep-democrats-in-power-so-why-arent-republicans-fighting-it%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2225030&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The state-mandated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-republican-state-senators-propose-bills-to-end-no-excuse-mail-voting-automatic-registration\/\" title=\"Georgia Republican State Senators Propose Bills to End No-excuse Mail Voting, Automatic Registration\">automatic voter registration<\/a> campaign \u2062is reshaping the political landscape. With\u200d 24 states adopting\u200c some form of \u2063AVR since \u20642015, Democrats have capitalized on this strategy. Republican disunity has left them vulnerable. Efforts like those in Alaska show the impact\u2063 of AVR in ballooning voter rolls\u200d with low-propensity voters,\u2063 potentially altering\u200c election outcomes. The state-mandated automatic \u2062voter registration campaign has significantly \u200cimpacted \u200bthe\u200b political landscape.\u2062 Democrats have\u200c leveraged this strategy effectively, with \u206324 states implementing AVR since 2015. Republican disunity has made\u200c them susceptible \u200bto its influence. Examples from Alaska \u2064demonstrate how\u200d AVR can massively increase\u2063 voter rolls with less-engaged voters, \u200cpotentially changing election results.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Election integrity hawks \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restorationofamerica.com\/restoration-news\/eric\/heres-the-lefts-playbook-for-rigging-elections-in-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">myself among them<\/a> \u2014 have spilled gallons of ink since 2020 exposing ballot drop boxes, \u201cZuckbucks,\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/major-case-on-voting-machine-vulnerabilities-wraps-up-in-ga\/\" title=\"GA concludes major case on voting machine vulnerabilities\">voting machine vulnerabilities<\/a>, and conservatives are all the better prepared to face the 2024 election for those efforts. But there\u2019s a massive front in this fight we can\u2019t afford to overlook because we\u2019re losing: voter registration. <\/p>\n<p>If getting out the vote (GOTV) is the key to winning elections, registering voters is the key to effective GOTV. But doing it at scale takes money and coordination, something Republican strategists and donors have almost totally ignored. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-230362657\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c0dc7f9a251c918119ca9a003062180a fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c0dc7f9a251c918119ca9a003062180a\"><\/div>\n<p>As it stands, the left is more than a decade ahead in that race. <\/p>\n<p>Beginning around 2008, \u201cprogressive\u201d operatives discovered they could weaponize 501(c)(3) charities \u2014 the same part of the tax code as your local church or The Salvation Army \u2014 to identify and register tens of millions of new Democrat voters across the country purely by using demographics. Take it from the far-left Brennan Center, which birthed this scheme: To build a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restorationofamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/RenewingDemocracy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">permanent Democrat majority<\/a>, we must bring \u201cmillions of new voters onto the rolls through a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heres-a-look-into-popular-voter-database-erics-left-wing-origins\/\" title=\"Here\u2019s A Look Into Popular Voter Database ERIC\u2019s Left-Wing Origins\">modernized registration system \u2014 starting<\/a> in 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/app\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Corridor-Partners-Plan-.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">secret strategy memo<\/a> from 2015 asks mega-donors to fund \u201clarge-scale, multi-year voter registration programs\u201d focused on \u201cunderrepresented\u201d groups to \u201cfundamentally reshape the electorate in as many as 13 states\u201d \u2014 by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Hence the left\u2019s obsession with microtargeting the transgender-identified, black, college-indebted Millennial renter bloc with \u201ccivic participation\u201d campaigns, uniformly run by faux \u201cnonpartisan\u201d organizations like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/rock-the-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rock the Vote<\/a> and bankrolled by multibillion-dollar philanthropies like the <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/scott-walters-written-testimony-to-committee-on-house-administration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ford Foundation<\/a>. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d500af4498dc8905522d7051dbcd17a0 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d500af4498dc8905522d7051dbcd17a0\"><\/div>\n<p>Along with The Federalist, my organization, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.restoration-news.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Restoration News<\/a>, has been one of the few groups drawing conservative attention to these partisan campaigns because they may be the biggest threat our country faces. We estimate that the left has access to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restorationofamerica.com\/restoration-news\/eric\/read-restorations-letter-to-congress-on-politicized-charity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">upwards of $500 million<\/a> <em>each year <\/em>just to register new Democrats, and that\u2019s only counting the tax-exempt nonprofits. <\/p>\n<p>These voter registration groups \u2014 like Stacey Abrams\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/fair-fight-action\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fair Fight Action<\/a> \u2014 collectively <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restorationofamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Table_ROA-Data-Registration-Group-Database-2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported more than $1.3 billion in revenues<\/a> for 2021 <em>alone<\/em>. In contrast, the right spends so little registering new Republicans that no one\u2019s bothered adding it up; it may be as low as 1 percent of the left\u2019s vast wealth. <\/p>\n<p>The most staggering thing is that this disparity went almost entirely unnoticed until 2020. With an army like that, it\u2019s no wonder Democrats were able to drive Democrat turnout in Georgia and Arizona to astronomical levels \u2014 the surprise is that Republicans weren\u2019t further<em> <\/em>behind than they were.<\/p>\n<p>This was supposed to be the left\u2019s long march to victory. What they <em>couldn\u2019t <\/em>count on was Donald Trump driving millions of new voters into the Republican ranks. Now even diehard \u201cprogressives\u201d are balking at spending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/04\/01\/democrats-voter-registration-minorities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$1,200 per new Democrat voter<\/a>, according to The Washington Post, since Trump expanded the GOP base with so many working-class and nonwhite voters.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-3eb7b8ee1ecb26d70682bb372babe110 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-3eb7b8ee1ecb26d70682bb372babe110\"><\/div>\n<p>That kept the GOP competitive; now we need to strike back. It\u2019s time to start paying attention to your enemy because the next stage in that fight \u2014 automatic, state-mandated voter registration \u2014 is already here.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Birth of an Activist Campaign<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Why wait for Americans to register to vote when the state will do it for them at taxpayers\u2019 expense? <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the impetus behind <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/09\/05\/with-automatic-voter-registration-say-hello-to-permanent-democrat-power\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">automatic voter registration<\/a> (AVR), the next evolution in a 15-year-old scheme to mass-register new Democrat voters. Under traditional rules, Americans register to vote under their own initiative. AVR, with some variations, transforms that <em>opt-in<\/em> system to an <em>opt-out <\/em>system by adding individuals to the voter rolls when they interact with the government \u2014 say, changing your address at the DMV.<\/p>\n<p>In Virginia \u2014 where Democrats made enacting AVR a <a href=\"https:\/\/lis.virginia.gov\/cgi-bin\/legp604.exe?ses=201&#038;typ=bil&#038;val=hb235\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">priority<\/a> after taking a trifecta in 2019 \u2014 that\u2019s as harmless as prompting DMV customers to register to vote or decline. But in Alaska, any resident who applies for a <a href=\"https:\/\/alaskapublic.org\/2024\/01\/02\/alaskans-begin-filing-for-2024-permanent-fund-dividends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Permanent Fund Dividend<\/a> from the state is <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.elections.alaska.gov\/doc\/info\/PFD%20AVR%20FAQ.pdf\">automatically<\/a><\/em>  registered to vote unless they opt out. <\/p>\n<p>In the past, impatient Democrats have settled for the former system but only to get them closer to the latter. Shortly after Democrats retook control of Virginia\u2019s General Assembly last November, they pushed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.votebeat.org\/2024\/02\/26\/virginia-bill-automatic-dmv-address-updates-voter-registration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AVR \u201cupdate\u201d bill<\/a> to register anyone who renews their driver\u2019s license with the DMV. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/elections-and-campaigns\/automatic-voter-registration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twenty-four<\/a> states and the District of Columbia have adopted some form of AVR since 2015. This didn\u2019t happen overnight, but it did happen conscientiously. Before 2009, hardly anyone even discussed the policy. Data from Google and Lexis Nexis show almost no online references until 2015 when the pro-AVR campaign began in earnest. From 2000\u20132016, Lexis reported 2,700 media references to the policy. Since 2016 it\u2019s grown to more than <em>17,000<\/em>.  <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Stupid Party vs. the Evil Party<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Of the 24 states with AVR, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/elections-and-campaigns\/automatic-voter-registration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">17<\/a> of them are the result of partisan Democrat bills, three from ballot initiatives (beginning with Alaska) funded by \u201cdark money\u201d groups, three from DMV administrative rule changes, and one from sheer executive fiat.<\/p>\n<p>In most instances, unified Democrat majorities rammed through AVR bills while Republican legislators divided and bickered. Back in 2017-2018, in three states, liberal or plain wimpy Republican governors \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/democracy-wire\/automatic-registration-comes-to-illinois\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bruce Rauner<\/a>, R-Ill.,  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/md-politics\/maryland-bill-that-allows-automatic-voter-registration-becomes-law-without-gov-hogans-signature\/2018\/04\/06\/fb506504-3995-11e8-9c0a-85d477d9a226_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Larry Hogan<\/a>, R-Md., and Charlie Baker, R-Mass., \u2014 eagerly signed AVR bills into law to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press-release\/massachusetts-gov-charlie-baker-signs-automatic-voter-registration-into-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leftist applause<\/a>, or failed to veto them in Hogan\u2019s case.<\/p>\n<p>In Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp made Stacey Abrams\u2019 job easier by adopting AVR in 2016 through the DMV. That added 681,000 new voters in three years. The Brennan Center, which masterminded the national AVR push, crows that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/news\/local-govt--politics\/automatic-registration-leads-surge-new-georgia-voters\/97PMHrv8anlB66TfKdlUtK\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">94 percent <em>more <\/em>voters registered<\/a> in Georgia because of AVR. \u201cWithout [AVR], Georgia would have registered 6,279 voters weekly in 2017,\u201d the group wrote. With it, \u201cGeorgia registered an average of 12,160 voters a week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The single exception to this trend was West Virginia, where many Democrats voted <em><a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/WV\/rollcall\/HB4013\/id\/518776\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">against<\/a><\/em>  a Republican AVR bill \u2014 because it also mandated photo ID requirements to vote.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, just when the right needed to be most united against the Democrat phalanx, Republicans were in complete disarray or blissfully unaware of the stealth campaign spreading across the country \u2014 or actively helping the Democrats lock them out of power for good.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<p>In September 2023, Democrat Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro bypassed the Republican legislature altogether and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.pa.gov\/newsroom\/governor-shapiro-implements-automatic-voter-registration-in-pennsylvania-joining-bipartisan-group-of-states-that-have-taken-commonsense-step-to-make-voter-registration-more-streamlined-and-secure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">poofed AVR into existence<\/a> via executive order, bragging that automatically registering Pennsylvanians who renew their driver\u2019s license will magically \u201cpromote election security.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>When outraged Republican lawmakers sued for usurping the legislature\u2019s constitutional authority to direct elections, Federalist Society Judge Jennifer P. Wilson simply <a href=\"https:\/\/penncapital-star.com\/briefs\/court-dismisses-pa-freedom-caucus-lawsuit-challenging-automatic-voter-registration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dismissed their case<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet today\u2019s ruling be another reminder that taking legal advice from Donald Trump is never a winning strategy,\u201d the imperious Shapiro sneered. Reports suggest voter registration has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.post-gazette.com\/news\/politics-state\/2023\/12\/12\/pennsylvania-automatic-voter-registration\/stories\/202312120083\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">risen 65 percent<\/a> in this critical swing state since September 2023. Which party do you suppose is best prepared to tap those new voters with ballot harvesting and GOTV drives?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Bloating Voter Rolls<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>To date, Democrats have scored these victories mainly in blue states like Illinois and New Jersey. Beginning in 2019, savvy congressional Democrats began featuring AVR mandates for <em>all <\/em>states in every congressional major election bill: the 2019 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/116th-congress\/house-bill\/4#:~:text=The%20bill%20expands%20the%20circumstances,of%20changes%20to%20voting%20practices.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Voting Rights Advancement Act<\/a>,\u201d 2021 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/117th-congress\/house-bill\/1#:~:text=The%20bill%20addresses%20ethics%20in,for%20federal%20employees%20and%20the\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">For the People Act<\/a>,\u201d and 2023 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/118th-congress\/house-bill\/11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Freedom to Vote Act<\/a>,\u201d with more to follow in 2024. <\/p>\n<p>But for a few states, the left has turned to its vast \u201cdark money\u201d machines to fuel ballot initiatives meant to bypass Republican lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>Alaska was the first target in 2016 with <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Alaska_Voter_Registration_via_the_Permanent_Fund_Dividend_Application,_Ballot_Measure_1_(2016)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Measure 1<\/a>, which was pushed by the local AFL-CIO, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), NAACP, League of Women Voters, and Senate squish Lisa Murkowski.<\/p>\n<p>The left spent $1.4 million pushing \u201cyes\u201d on Measure 1, which passed 65\u201335 percent. The \u201cno\u201d campaign\u2019s budget: $0.<\/p>\n<p>Funding came from the National Education Association and New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) charity run by the D.C. consultancy Arabella Advisors. Arabella heads a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restorationofamerica.com\/restoration-news\/dark-money\/arabella-the-lefts-dark-money-monster-pt-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">multibillion-dollar political machine<\/a> that specializes in passing through contributions from anonymous mega-donors to political causes on the left. <\/p>\n<p>More than 100,000 new voters have been automatically registered since the initiative went into effect in 2017 at the cost of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elections.alaska.gov\/research\/statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$1.3 million to taxpayers<\/a>. Just 29,000 individuals have opted out. Because Alaska declares party affiliation at the time of registration, huge numbers of individuals automatically registered through the Permanent Fund are tallied as \u201cundeclared,\u201d the category with the lowest level of election turnout. As of this writing, the state <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elections.alaska.gov\/statistics\/2024\/FEB\/Party%20By%20Precinct%20Post%20Purge.html#STATEWIDE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reports<\/a> nearly 591,000 registered voters, 263,000 of whom (45 percent) are undeclared.<\/p>\n<p>The result is voter rolls dramatically bloated with low-propensity, politically tuned-out voters. Most were registered, perhaps unwittingly, because they applied for a Permanent Fund Dividend check from the state, which can be as high as $1,500 \u2014 hardly \u201ccivic participation\u201d in action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s one reason why our voter rolls are so hard to clean,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/mustreadalaska.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Must Read Alaska<\/a><em> <\/em>editor Suzanne Downing, who heads the state\u2019s top conservative news outlet, told me. Downing was one of the few who warned in 2016 that Measure 1 would, \u201cin time, [create] an underground commodity market, where ballots are the currency that special interest groups find a way to control.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s hard to argue with, considering how influential left-wing \u201cdark money\u201d groups have been in enacting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restorationofamerica.com\/restoration-news\/dark-money\/dark-money-bought-ranked-choice-voting-in-alaska-will-dark-money-keep-it-in-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ranked-choice voting<\/a>, opposing a state convention to <a href=\"https:\/\/mustreadalaska.com\/d-c-dark-money-pours-into-effort-to-block-an-alaska-constitutional-convention\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reform the Permanent Fund<\/a>, and electing the first Democrat congresswoman, Mary Peltola, in 50 years to a state that broke for Trump by 10 points in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlaska has a boom-or-bust economy and highly mobile population, with lots of seasonal workers and military or people who stay for just a year or two before moving south,\u201d Downing explained via email. \u201cWhen people apply for a Permanent Fund dividend and are automatically registered to vote, they may not even realize it, because the provision to opt out is not obvious. Many military members also tend to hang onto their Alaska residency even when stationed elsewhere so they can continue receiving a dividend check.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of this makes it very hard to keep up with the voter rolls,\u201d she continued. \u201cEven though the Division of Elections cleans the voter rolls every winter, the rolls swell up again after March 31, when dividend applications are due, and we get a whole new batch of newly registered voters who may become targets for ballot harvesting or voter fraud efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two more states have since enacted AVR laws following the Alaska ballot initiative model. Michigan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Michigan_Proposal_3,_Voting_Policies_in_State_Constitution_Initiative_(2018)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Proposal 3<\/a> in 2018 implemented AVR alongside no-excuse absentee voting and Election Day registration \u2014 similarly pushed by the NAACP, ACLU, United Auto Workers union, Sierra Club, and the Bernie Sanders-aligned socialist group Our Revolution. <\/p>\n<p>As in Alaska, the left outspent the ill-organized right by $2 million, most of it from the ACLU. <\/p>\n<p>Nevada\u2019s AVR push began as a Democrat bill that was vetoed in 2017 by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval before going to the public in 2018 as <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Nevada_Question_5,_Automatic_Voter_Registration_via_DMV_Initiative_(2018)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Question 5<\/a>. Again the left outspent the right \u2014 this time by a stunning <em>$10 million<\/em>, 62 percent of which came from the Arabella network\u2019s Sixteen Thirty Fund. Another $1 million came from Democrat mega-donor George Marcus, who later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2019\/09\/10\/billionaire-george-marcus-prepares-to-host-2020-joe-biden-fundraiser.html\">hosted a fundraiser<\/a> for Joe Biden\u2019s flagging 2020 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Start Fighting Back<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>All these are but the beginning of sorrows if conservatives don\u2019t get serious about rolling back AVR. With a win rate like that, what\u2019s to stop leftists from running a similar initiative in Arizona, Ohio, Florida, or Utah?<\/p>\n<p>Remember that the whole point of AVR laws is to boost Democrats\u2019 robust get-out-the-vote and ballot-harvesting operations by saving them resources currently spent on voter registration. In Maryland, for instance, Democratic lawmakers are working to expand the state\u2019s AVR law to include \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.naacpldf.org\/news\/ldf-testifies-in-support-of-automatic-voter-registration-for-formerly-incarcerated-marylanders-upon-release\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">formerly incarcerated Marylanders<\/a>\u201d the minute they leave prison \u2014 <em>86,000<\/em> <em>each year. <\/em>Imagine the effect that\u2019d have in, say, neighboring Virginia or contested Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of Georgia, you can\u2019t credit the state party for much these days, but in this, at least local Republicans are finally getting wise to the left\u2019s schemes. In February, Republican lawmakers quietly introduced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.ga.gov\/legislation\/64652?stream=top\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bill<\/a> to flip DMV registrations from <em>opt-out <\/em>to <em>opt-in<\/em>, which largely (though not completely) defangs AVR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere needs to be some conscious decision of the Georgia voter saying, \u2018I wish to ensure I\u2019m registered in Georgia,\u2019\u201d bill sponsor Max Burns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/politics\/georgia-gop-senators-attempt-to-eliminate-automatic-voter-registration\/SDASDL77YFHBBMXLJRICZLI6LE\/\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s right on the money. It\u2019s time other Republicans take heed and take the initiative \u2014 if not to do the right thing, then to save their parties from annihilation. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-7b0a2e38db08bd286cf4bc1263f5f82b fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-7b0a2e38db08bd286cf4bc1263f5f82b\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since 2020, election integrity advocates, including myself, have highlighted ballot drop boxes, &#8220;Zuckbucks,&#8221; and voting machine vulnerabilities. Conservatives are now better equipped for the 2024 election. Yet, a critical battleground we must address is automatic voter registration, a significant challenge we cannot ignore as it currently eludes our grasp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1179,"featured_media":2225031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/tiffany-tertipes-nxcs8wwj9J0-unsplash-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2225030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/tiffany-tertipes-nxcs8wwj9J0-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2225030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2225031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2225030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2225030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2225030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}