Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar today highlighted her legislation to make voting easier for all Americans at a national forum hosted by the Center for American Progress (CAP) focusing on voting rights and increasing voter participation. Klobuchar’sSame Day Registration Act, which is modeled after Minnesota’s same day voter registration law,would require states to allow voters to register the same day as a federal election. Klobuchar also discussed other barriers to voting, such as voter ID laws, and explored ideas to improve voter access.  Klobuchar told the audience of her recent trip to Selma, Alabama with Congressman John Lewis where they visited several landmark sites of the civil rights movement including the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“The right to vote is the foundation of effective democratic government.  Voting is the only true way the American people can ensure their elected leaders are held accountable for their actions and decisions, and we should be doing everything we can to foster this right,”Klobuchar said. “I am proud to say that Minnesota had the highest statewide turnout in the nation for the 2012 election, and this legislation would help other states replicate our success and make sure that no one is turned away from the voting booth due to a failure to register.”

Minnesota has allowed same-day voter registration for many years and has one of the highest voter turnouts in the country. Seventeen percent of all Minnesota voters registered on Election Day in 2012. If these voters had not been allowed to register, Minnesota’s turnout would have dropped by 14 points. Klobuchar urged the defeat and repeal of unduly restrictive voter ID laws, and highlighted the need for additional polling places, poll workers and fully functioning voting machines as actions to take to improve voter participation.

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