Democratic governor’s voting reform could benefit GOP the most in Pennsylvania: report

Former President Donald Trump had a very negative reaction when Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro took steps to make voting easier and more convenient in the key swing state. Trump, in a September 25 post on his Truth Social platform, complained that automatic voter registration would be "a disaster for the Election of Republicans, including your favorite President, ME!"

But according to The Atlantic's Russell Berman, Republicans — not Democrats — may be the ones who stand the most to gain from Shapiro's automatic voter registration program.

In an article published on November 1, Berman explains, "Trump's panic is consistent with his baseless view that any reforms designed to increase voter turnout, such as expanding mail balloting and early voting, are part of a Democratic conspiracy to rig elections in their favor. But he may be wrong to fear automatic voter registration."

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Elections expert Seo-young Silvia Kim told The Atlantic that Shapiro's program "really has a potential to lean more Republican" and is "not great news for Democrats."

According to Berman, "First implemented in Oregon in 2016, automatic voter registration is now used in 23 states, including three — Alaska, Georgia, and West Virginia — that are governed by Republicans. Rather than requiring citizens to proactively register to vote, some states that use the system automatically enroll people who meet eligibility requirements and then give them the option to decline or opt out. The shift is subtler in Pennsylvania; the state has simply started prompting people to register to vote when they obtain a new or renewed driver's license or state ID."

Berman notes that "the impact of automatic registration on any one election is likely to be marginal" but adds that "even small shifts could be significant in a state such as Pennsylvania, where less than one percentage point separated Trump from Hillary Clinton in 2016 and just more than one point separated Joe Biden from Trump four years later."

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Read The Atlantic's full report at this link (subscription required).