This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to talk to Representative Neal Hanson (D – Ogden, District 9) about some of the bills he felt deserved a little more attention…sure enough he drew my attention towards his own bill, H.B. 196.

Sure enough, I was intrigued to hear his proposal set forth in the bill to allow election day voter registration. Now before you start ranting and raving about voter fraud, listen to the proposal.

First off, the bill is very specific in who is allowed to register to vote on the day of the election. Only those that are legally qualified to vote are allowed to take advantage of the bill. This works because those who do sign up the day of the election are given what are known as a provisional ballot – a ballot that will not be counted until after the county clerk is able to verify that the potential voter is indeed qualified to vote in the first place. Representative Hansen tells me that there are currently nine states that allow early voting and that this bill is similar to the ones enacted.

I hope this bill passes, again it only allows people to vote who are otherwise legal to vote – they simply have not been able to for one reason or another. Furthermore the ballots of people who do sign up on election day are held to make sure that the vote is valid in the first place.