Senate committee urges Congress to modernize voter‑registration law, advances resolution 5–3

The Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs voted 5–3 on April 28 to report SCR 31, a resolution asking Congress to update the National Voter Registration Act to reflect online registration and streamline which state agencies may process registrations.

Sponsor Senator Stein told the committee SCR 31 seeks to remove ‘‘bureaucratic, outdated voter registration requirements’’ and to ensure registration work is performed by election officials, not agencies without election expertise. ‘‘Simply, voter registration processes should be conducted by election officials,’’ Stein said.

Secretary of State Nancy Landry testified in support, saying online registration reduces mistakes and that her office prefers agencies use the Secretary’s portal rather than transferring paper forms from agencies. ‘‘Citizens can register online in minutes,’’ Landry said, adding that the NVRA was written ‘‘in the early days of the internet’’ and should be modernized.

Members questioned operational details. First Assistant Secretary Katherine Newsom and Elizabeth Daigle described an OMB‑hosted pop‑up that routes agency entries into the Secretary’s registration queue and said the new OMB system — slated to go live in September — is a priority to reduce transfer errors. Newsom said the portal reduces mistakes compared with paper forms.

Senator Carter objected to immediately moving the measure to the floor; the committee then held a roll‑call vote. The clerk recorded Migas — yes; Carter — no; Faizy — yes; Jenkins — no; Miller — yes; Reese — yes; Sellers — no; Womack — yes. The motion to report SCR 31 favorably passed 5–3.

The committee asked the Secretary’s office to provide statistics on error rates before final floor consideration. SCR 31 is nonbinding — it asks Congress to act — and the committee sent the resolution to the full Senate for further consideration.