By: Joseph Curl
Democrats, who got hammers in the 2016 presidential election and lost more than 1,000 legislative seats while Barack Obama was president, want to register new voters.
How new? How about the minute they’re born?
A Democratic leader in Washington state is moving to pass legislation to get people registered to vote at birth. But it’s not just in the liberal land of stoners and Starbucks, according to McClatchy.
In Nevada and New Mexico, a liberal group is pressuring the legislatures to let people register when they get driver’s licenses.
In Ohio, progressive activists have thrown their support behind a mayoral candidate because she fights with Republicans about voting access.
Across the country, Democrats and their allies are plotting a quiet and disjointed but considerable push to make voting easier by dismantling registration barriers and promoting candidates who want to expand voting rights. It’s all an effort to reshape the electorate by creating new Democratic voters.
If successful, the effect could be profound. The more people who vote, the better Democrats usually do in everything from a marquee presidential election to little-noticed municipal race.
“Democrats have been on the defensive,” said Tina Podlodowski, chairwoman of the Washington State Democratic Party. “We’ve tried to get on the offensive, and I think people are starting to listen more and more to that.”
Democrats are clearly getting desperate. “If you look at different countries, European countries or Scandinavian countries, basically folks walk in when they’re 18 and they just start voting and don’t have to register,” Podlodowski said. “Because they were registered at birth.”
The plan might be the only way Democrats ever get new voters. And judging from the behavior of Rep. Maxine Waters, Democrats are all babies, anyway.