This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Last year, five counties in Utah allowed voters to register on Election Day. Legislators endorsed a bill Wednesday that could expand same-day registration to early voting — a 10-day period before Election Day with balloting at selected sites.
The House Government Operations Committee on Wednesday unanimously advanced HB219 to the full House.
Mark Thomas, elections director for Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, said officials had always intended to allow same-day registration during early voting, but a drafting error excluded that in the original legislation.
Same-day registration is currently allowed as a pilot project through the 2016 elections in any county wishing to participate, as an experiment to see if it can increase voter turnout.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, said Davis, Kane, Salt Lake, Sanpete and Davis counties participated last year.
She presented data showing 1,221 people registered on Election Day in those counties: 815 in Salt Lake County, 290 in Davis, 101 in Weber, 11 in Kane and four in Sanpete.
— Lee Davidson