With the signing of an agreement between the Secretary of the State’s office and the Department of Motor Vehicles, Connecticut will be the first state in the nation to introduce automatic voter registration.
Secretary of the State Denise W. Merrill and Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Michael Bzdyra said the streamlined motor-voter system will automatically register eligible citizens to vote when they go to the DMV for license or state-issued identification card services. The new system will take two years to develop.
In the agreement, the two agencies also planned immediate, short-term actions. They include a provision for a unified application for licensing and voter registration at DMV offices while the broader automated system is built. Also, the two agencies pledged stronger efforts to promote the motor-voter law more widely in DMV offices and through DMV customer outreach. This includes voter registration links in the DMV mobile app for iPhones and Android devices as well as through mailings, information in DMV branch offices and other traditional customer contacts.
For the past few months, the Secretary of the State’s office and DMV have been discussing measures to improve efforts under the National Voter Registration Act, also called the motor- voter law. The 1993 federal act encourages voter registration at DMV offices when eligible citizens seek a driver’s license or state-issued ID card.
