How Do You Prove Citizenship Online?

By Marty Smith

Your column is a hoot! One question: If you register to vote On-line, who checks your proof of Citizenship?

—Bar

The fact that you hyphenate "online," refer to things as "a hoot," and indulge in Teddy Roosevelt-era random capitalization, Bar, suggests you're not writing me because you're 18 and want to know how to cast your first ballot.

Not that there's anything wrong with that! Fie upon the young anyway, with their "emojis," their "Snapchat," their "erections." I've made peace with the fact that I'm an old person writing a column about old-person stuff for other old people. Come, let us talk of bowel movements, and hard candy, and the Kaiser.

Would-be Oregon voters have had the option of registering online since 2010. (Google "My Vote Oregon" to find the page.) Last year, Gov. Kate Brown made the process easier by signing a first-in-the-nation bill to automatically register voters using driver's license data.

If you've renewed your Oregon driver's license since 2009, when tougher requirements went into effect, you know they now take the citizenship portion pretty seriously, and woe betide you if your papers aren't in order.

Essentially, the Secretary of State's Office has avoided the Stalinist nightmare of making you prove your right to exist by outsourcing that task to the DMV, which—I think we can all agree—is the bureau to beat when it comes to Stalinist nightmares.

But if you don't have an Oregon-issued ID? Do we just have to take your word that you're legit? And wouldn't that expose online voter registration to all sorts of fraud and mischief?

Maybe—but no more so now than before. The online form doesn't require proof of citizenship, but neither did the paper mail-in form that came before it. Falsifying either, however, is a felony good for five years in prison. Anyone who's willing to run that kind of risk would probably rather forge checks, or prescriptions, and have something to show for their trouble.

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.

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