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Testimony by Dee Wendler on HB 2583 before the House Election and Rules Committee, March 4, 2005

Chair Kitts, members of the committee, my name is Dee Wendler and I am the director of business affairs for Portland State University. I am here today to testify about the impact House Bill 2583 would have on the institutions of the Oregon University System and to explain the federal mandates we fulfill when we register our students to vote.

As you know, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as the Motor Voter Act, requires state agencies to offer voter registration. This law requires Oregon’s public universities to provide their students with a voter registration form, to offer assistance in completing that form, and to send the completed application to the county clerk. In 1998, this voter registration requirement became a part of the regular Program Participation Agreement to award federal financial aid. Schools are required to make a good faith effort to distribute voter registration materials to all students and to make this information readily available or they risk jeopardizing the federal financial aid available to their students.

We take our responsibilities under Motor Voter on our campuses very seriously because if we do not fulfill its mandates we put our students’ access to higher education at risk. To fulfill these mandates we must not only inform our students about the opportunities to register to vote but we must encourage and facilitate the registration of our students.

Universities implement Motor Voter in a variety of ways on the campuses in conjunction with students. For example, at PSU we offer the opportunity to register to vote when a student pays a bill or registers for classes. Under the current system, voter registration cards are available for students to pick up, fill out, and drop into boxes to be mailed by the University. We have created a very simple system to support voter registration on our campus.

The most important impact of HB 2583, we believe, is that it is in conflict with the intent of the Motor Voter Act. This Act was passed to encourage young people to register to vote and participate in the electoral process. HB 2583 adds a barrier for a first time voter at the time when we are mandated to encourage them to become active in the process.

Many of our students register on campus for the very first time. For most students the additional requirement that they attach proof of citizenship would, we believe, be significant enough that they would never actually complete the voter registration process. Many students simply don’t have ready access to their birth certificates or a passport. Often those documents are being held in safe keeping by a student’s parents. For students who have moved to Oregon from another state, accessing those documents may be even more difficult. We understand that the county clerk bears the burden of notifying a student who has neglected to attach proof of citizenship to his or her registration. We also know from experience, however, that tracking down a student, asking them to provide the county clerk’s office with proof of citizenship, and having that student fulfill that requirement creates many burdens for already busy students. We believe first time registration of our students will be severely limited if the process become too burdensome for them.

As stated before, Oregon’s public universities take their responsibility to register students under the Motor Voter Act very seriously. HB 2583 will have the effect of making the process of registering to vote for the first time confusing and unnecessarily burdensome.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I would be happy to answer any questions