WATCH: How Automatic Voter Registration Makes Pennsylvania’s Elections More Secure

Click the images above to watch videos of Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll explain how automatic voter registration improves election security.  

Harrisburg, PA – On Tuesday, Governor Josh Shapiro implemented automatic voter registration (AVR) in Pennsylvania to promote election security and safety, save taxpayers money, and streamline the voter registration process. Today, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Secretary Mike Carroll are highlighting how AVR makes Pennsylvania’s elections more secure.

Automatic voter registration is a commonsense step to help ensure election security and increase voter participation. Pennsylvanians already provide proof of identity, residency, age, and citizenship at the PennDOT drivers and licensing centers – all the info required to register to vote. Electronic registrations recorded during driver’s license center interactions are more secure and take a fraction of the time to process. Implementing AVR will help local election officials receive regular updates when residents obtain new identification – which residents often do when they change their name or address – to maintain the accuracy of Pennsylvania’s voter rolls.  

Hear from Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll on how automatic voter registration will make Pennsylvania elections more secure:

Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt – click here to watch. 

Q: How does [AVR] make our elections more secure?

A: Whenever you have more information captured in a voter registration record – and I ran elections for 10 years in Pennsylvania’s largest county – the more information that’s attached to that record, like a driver’s license number, the more easy it is to identify to make sure a voter doesn’t for example, register more than once, and if a voter moves from one county to another, [it is easier] to link that record to eliminate any opportunity for a voter to cast more than one vote.

PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll – click here to watch.

Q:If someone doesn’t have the citizenship or if they’re not eligible what happens on the voter registration?

A: It doesn’t even appear. If you are not an eligible voter, then you are disqualified from proceeding any further and you end the transaction with your photo without being able to register to vote.

Media Contact:

Governor’s Press Office, ra-gvgovpress@pa.gov  

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