facebook-pixel

Tribune Editorial: Legislators are right to recognize and encourage the right to vote

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, and Sen. Deidre Henderson, R-Spanish Fork, fist bump as SJR1, a concurrent resolution initiating the replacement of the state's statue of Philo Farnsworth in the United States Capitol with a statue of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, passes out of the Senate and heads to the House, following discussion in the Senate Chamber in the State Capitol in Salt Lake City Monday January 29, 2018.

“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves, and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The fundamental right to vote is as American as apple pie. But each year, for whatever reason, many Americans choose not to exercise that right. While recent efforts to use vote by mail ballots have increased voter turnout, turnout is still low. In 2016, Utah’s voter participation was 39th in the nation.

To its credit, the Utah Legislature has started its 2018 term with an effort to both recognize this fundamental right and encourage Utahns to use it.

Earlier this week the Senate passed a resolution offered by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, to install in Washington’s Statuary Hall a statue of Dr. Sen. Martha Hughes Cannon, the first female state senator in Utah and the country.

Senators and representatives who supported the measure wore yellow roses in recognition of Cannon’s influential role in the women’s suffrage movement. Cannon helped women receive the right to vote in Utah 40 years before the nation passed the 19th Amendment. She was also a key player in the national movement. The country will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 2020, the year Weiler proposed installing Cannon’s statue.

Also this past week a senate committee unanimously passed out of committee a bill, sponsored by Sen. Deidre Henderson, R-Spanish Fork, that would make voter registration automatic when a resident interacts with the Department of Motor Vehicles. For example, the bill would automatically register a resident to vote upon renewing a driver’s license, with the ability to opt out if the voter prefers not being registered.

Rep. Stephen Handy, R-Layton, is sponsoring an identical bill in the House.

With this bill, a Utahn’s default status will be registered to vote, as opposed to a system that requires a resident to affirmatively register themselves.

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Taylor Anderson wrote that the change “may seem like a subtle change, as eligible voters already can register at the DMV. But it led to the registration of hundreds of thousands of people who were eligible but not registered to vote in states that have already passed the law.”

At a time when voter suppression is a threat across the country, it is refreshing to see Republican legislators celebrate a noted female suffragist, and work to increase voter participation in elections.