When Randall Avila paid a visit to his local Department of Motor Vehicles a couple of years ago to renew his driver’s license, he was presented with a question at the end of his transaction: “Are you a U.S. citizen?”
The program has become the top method for Californians to register to vote for the first time or update an existing registration, according to aBut it has not translated to a higher rate of voter turnout, the study found. California’s younger voters, those between 18 and 24 years old, saw the largest increase in registered voter turnout across all age groups since California Motor Voter was implemented, 13.5 percentage points, according to the report.
“It’s widely understood that after you get somebody registered, you still have to get them out to vote. And clearly, by the lower registered voter turnout numbers, it may be an additional challenge for people who register through the DMV,” said Mindy Romero, the director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy. “We are emphasizing that outreach and voter registration efforts might be even more important for the DMV.
But the program, he said, has made voter registration “a passive activity, as opposed to someone actively saying, ‘I want to register to vote.’”