del.icio.us(Juan Martinez was formerly the executive director of MassVOTE, a nonpartisan voter outreach and education organization seeking to improve voter turnout. He joined us as campaign manager for John Bonifaz this summer. -- Ofer Inbar)
When I was running MassVOTE, we filed a bill for statewide Same Day Registration here in Massachusetts.
I and John Bonifaz both testified at the Elections Laws hearing about the importance of the reform, especially for current voters who have registration problems for a host of reasons. See MassVOTE's Election Protection report for more details.
Secretary Galvin didn't testify in the public hearing, but instead submitted his testimony in writing the next day - out of public view. When a pilot version of the bill was presented to the Senate in December 2005, Galvin worked with Republicans to kill it. I know because I was in the State House when this all came down.
Now he says he's in favor of it on a statewide basis. Well, where has he been the last 12 years in office. States like Minnesota have had Same Day Registration for 30 years! And where has Galvin been during this Legislative session, which began with the Same Day bill presented to the Election Laws Committee?
