California launches online voter registration

by headShrinker on 9/19/2012, 10:06 PM with 28 comments
  • by thesash on 9/19/2012, 10:20 PM

    Direct link to registration website: https://rtv.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote/

    It works surprisingly well. Crazy that this is new.

  • by whalesalad on 9/19/2012, 11:54 PM

    I'm super impressed by this. I'm grateful that government websites are finally starting to shape up. I'm on a break from California in good ol' Virginia right now and have been eager to register to vote. I just finished the registration in about 5 minutes, luckily I know all of the things it requested by memory. WOOT!

    Now I won't have any regrets about voting down the road when i'm at some backyard BBQ talking about the president. I'm looking forward to voting in this upcoming election.

  • by inetsee on 9/19/2012, 11:56 PM

    I find it interesting (but not surprising) that California is making an effort to make voter registration easier, while many states (mostly Southern) continue to try to put obstacles in the way of many people (mostly African-American, or poor, or both) being able to register to vote.

  • by r00fus on 9/19/2012, 10:27 PM

    This absolutely rules. I just re-registered (due to having moved) and it's quite straightforward, and you can request a permanent vote-by-mail ballot (most secure way to vote).

    For those paranoid about "online voting" - this is nothing of the sort, it simply updates the county voting registry with your details, they do a human effort to match it up with your existing info.

    Now if only the swing states had this in-place, it could enfranchise millions of folks who can't/don't have the time to register or don't realize they might have missed the registration deadline.

  • by bicknergseng on 9/19/2012, 11:11 PM

    I must have done something wrong. I filled everything out and it had me print a form that I'm supposed to mail to my registrar in order to register... which of course is registering via mail and not online.

  • by cutie on 9/20/2012, 1:15 AM

    About f'ing time... it's 2012. This year is also the first year you could file online CA tax returns without a middleman (or at least the first I noticed). When is the IRS gonna get off its butt?

  • by Mithrandir on 9/20/2012, 1:20 AM

    Note: If the DMV doesn't have your signature on file, you have to print out the application and send it in.

  • by jimbobob on 9/19/2012, 11:23 PM

    This is great. Just registered and the process took about 15 minutes.

  • by enraged_camel on 9/20/2012, 3:56 AM

    Here's hoping for online voting soon, as well.