Massachusetts will have automatic voter registration by 2020

Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law a bill to automatically register people to vote, which will go into effect by Jan. 1, 2020.

Bill Galvin, the Massachusetts elections chief, said people will be automatically registered when they make transactions at the state's Registry of Motor Vehicles or with MassHealth, the state's healthcare system.

"We will have systems in place to begin automatically registering voters at the Registry of Motor Vehicles and MassHealth on January 1, 2020, just in time for the next Presidential Primaries," Galvin said in a statement to MassLive.

Janet Domenitz, the executive director of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, said supporters of the bill have been working for six years to get it enacted.

"This is a home run for democracy. The push for this law has gone many innings, but now we all win," Domenitz told WBUR radio.

Currently, 13 other states and the District of Columbia have approved a automatic voter registration policy. Eight of those states have the policies in effect and five more will go into effect next year.