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<\/a><\/p>\nWASHINGTON \u2013 California will take the next step in blurring the lines between citizens and non-citizens beginning April Fool\u2019s Day when the state complies with a court order to begin automatically registering to vote all those who are granted driver\u2019s licenses.<\/p>\n
The state has long provided driver\u2019s licenses to all who simply claimed, without proof, that they were citizens of in the country legally. There were no checks made or documentation required.<\/p>\n
But beginning April 1 every person who gets a California driver\u2019s license will be automatically entitled to vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very pleased that Californians will have easier access to voter registration,\u201d said Jeremiah Levine, an attorney with Morrison Foerster who represented the voting-rights groups. \u201cWe are especially satisfied that changes will be made before California\u2019s statewide and federal primary elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state complied with the order under a program dubbed the California New Motor Voter Act. Signed into law in October 2015, the new statute requires the DMV to forward records for all eligible applicants to the Secretary of State\u2019s Office for registration unless those applicants elect not to register to vote.<\/p>\n
The League of Women Voters and three other groups sued the state\u2019s Department of Motor Vehicles and Secretary of State\u2019s Office in May 2017, claiming the state burdens would-be voters by making them fill out the same information on two separate forms to register to vote.<\/p>\n
According to the lawsuit filed last May, California ranks \u201ca dismal 46th in the nation\u201d in its rate of registered voters. More than 5.5 million eligible voters were unregistered as of February 2017, according to state data.<\/p>\n
Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the ACCE Institute, California Common Cause and the National Council of La Raza.<\/p>\n