The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE), our state partner organization in Hawaii, helped score a big victory for Hawaii voters on June 30 with the state’s enactment of Same Day Registration (SDR). Beginning in 2016, Hawaii voters who miss the state’s 30-day, pre-election voter registration deadline will no longer lose their right to vote. Instead, they will be able to both register and vote at early voting locations. Same Day Registration will be expanded to every precinct polling places in 2018. Hawaii now joins 12 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing SDR.

Voter advocates and progressive policy makers around the country have championed Same Day Registration as one of the most effective means of increasing voter turnout, particularly among youth and others with historically lower levels of political participation. Hawaii had the lowest voter turnout in the nation in the 2012 general election. With SDR, experts predict that turnout will rise in the state by almost 50,000 votes. Young people stand to benefit the most, with a nine percent increase in voter turnout.

The Hawaii victory was the culmination of a long, multi-year struggle, principally led by Hawaii Common Cause. FACE helped push it over the edge this year by engaging local communities in the legislative campaign, while CPD organized national voting rights groups to pressure wavering legislators.

CPD’s sights are now set on Delaware. Working closely with the Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement (DACA), our partner organization in the Diamond State, other voting rights groups and organized labor, we were able to get Same Day Registration passed in the state House of Representatives. The clock ran out on the 2014 legislative session before the state Senate could act. With a recharged new campaign next year, we expect Delaware to join the ranks of Same Day Registration states in 2015.