Why do we register voters?

In a previous post, Dan asked why it’s important to fight fraudulent voter registration. To answer that question, I think it’s important to first look at why it’s important to register voters in the first place. From a paperby R. Michael Alvarez, the codirector of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project:

1. Registration information is used to control who votes. Only those who are eligible to vote can register, and that eligibility is verified when the individual registers to vote. Also, registration information is used to authenticate voters when they participate (at poll sites, in early voting, or when they vote by mail). Thus, voter registration exists to control access, and to prevent voter fraud.

2. Registration information is used for election management and for other election administration tasks. Voter registration lists contain the addresses of those eligible and registered, and that information is used for many purposes ranging from provision of polling places to insuring that every voter receives the ballot they are supposed to receive when they go to vote. Voter registration is also used to maintain historical information to manage voter lists going forward and to provide evidentiary information in case of a challenge to the outcome of an election. [Emp. mine]

Registering voters is the only way to combat voter fraud in its various incarnations–ballot box stuffing, the same person voting in multiple jurisdictions, whatever. I think we can all agree that this is important, right? But the only way that registering voters works is if the voter rolls are pure. If they’re chockfull of people who don’t exist, or people who live in different jurisdictions, or people who haven’t actually registered, then the rolls are no good. They’re ineffective as a protective measure, and they reduce voter confidence in the outcome of the election.

Now: I agree with Dan that it’s important to ensure that legitimate voters don’t get taken off the voting rolls. Officials should do their best to make sure that doesn’t happen. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are totally legitimate reasons for pruning the rolls from time to time. And it doesn’t change the fact that groups like ACORN are responsible for tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of fraudulent/duplicate/nonexistant voter registrations. Republicans calling for reasonably accurate voter rolls aren’t akin to segregationists arguing for a poll tax, or a literacy test, or whatever. They’re simply trying to make sure that we don’t see a repeat of 1960’s presidential election, or Boss Tweed’s New York, or … you get the point.