Maryland became the 12th state to enact automatic voter registration on Thursday after Republican Gov. Larry Hogan declined to veto a bill that had passed the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Maryland has half a million unregistered voters, according to a 2017 report by the department of legislative services. Maryland’s adoption of automatic registration comes as lawmakers in blue and purple states across the country have been taking aggressive steps to expand access to the ballot this year, in an attempt to combat Republican voter suppression efforts at the state and national levels.
Under the bill, eligible voters will automatically be registered when they obtain or renew a driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles or interact with other agencies such as the state’s health insurance exchange and local departments of social services, unless they opt out. The new law takes effect in July 2019 and could register 400,000 new voters, according to a report by Demos.
