I am astonished that we have come to a point in our lives where Internet registration is not only possible, but accepted. It only makes sense that (with proper provisions of course) people have the ability to take part in our Democracy with the click of a mouse.

Now this bill will not immediately make online voter registration possible, rather it will allow the Lieutenant Governor to set a site up if he so chooses. A few important safety features are put into place – requirements for a digital copy of a valid Utah ID as provided by the DMV, for example; but on the whole this appears to be a bill that makes things much easier for, say college students, to get signed up to vote.

Oh, did I say college students? Yeah, I did, didn’t I? You see there is the slight hitch that in order to do online registration, your ID must have your current address on it; if you just moved up to the dorms and have not had the time to change things, you can’t take advantage of this system. I don’t quite know how to get around this other than having the website print out a mail in application wherein the person has to take extra steps to ensure that they are registered.

I do, however, favor this bill. Having signed up countless people to vote I know just how difficult it can be to motivate people to actually do it. This bill allows the Lieutenant Governor to make it just a little bit easier. My only concern is that this bill may die due to the techno-phobes who don’t quite understand that this could actually be a safe and secure process.