Steve Burns
WMAL.com

ANNAPOLIS – (WMAL) Citing red tape and too many hoops to jump through, State Senator Roger Manno (D-Montgomery) today will be giving details on his bill to automatically register new voters in Maryland.

“This bill just streamlines that process, so folks that are eligible to vote can just go and vote,” Manno told WMAL. “We draw from multiple databases in the state to determine who is eligible to vote.”

He said those eligible voters would then be sent a notice that they have been registered, and can then either opt out, choose a political party, or choose to remain unaffiliated.

“We just think it’ll make folks’ lives a little bit easier and cut down on some administrative red tape,” he said. “We’ve heard estimates of around 400,000 people (would be registered). That’s a lot of folks to bring into the system.”

“Way to open up a can of voter fraud all over the place,” Maryland GOP Executive Director Joe Cluster told WMAL. “We don’t have any forms to check whether these people are actually who they are when they’re voting.”

Cluster said he may be amenable to the bill if it included a provision to require voters show identification at the polls.

“I can go in and vote for anyone that I know their birthday and address,” Cluster said. “And that’s relatively available on the voter rolls you can purchase from the state.”

Manno maintained voter fraud is not a pervasive problem in Maryland. “And I don’t think it’s been a major concern of the other two states who have implemented universal voter registrations,” he said.

In addition to voter fraud concerns, Cluster sees a Democratic party getting more desperate.

“Democrats are losing voter registration from their high of 2.2 million registered Democrats a couple years ago. Now they’re down to around 2 million,” he said. “They’re getting a little nervous and trying to find as many registered voters as they can.”