Election mechanics miscellany

Often the rules of the road determine what's possible. I try to notice what's going on:

• Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) increases turnout -- but perhaps not as much as you might expect. In states which adopt AVR (in blue above), people who have contact with the government, such as at the DMV, are added to the voter rolls unless they opt out. There's a modest gain in overall turnout in elections, maybe one percent. The greater effect is on who votes.

  People between 18 and 24 who live in AVR states are 6.3 percentage points more likely to turn out. By contrast, AVR is not associated with increased turnout, potentially even a modest decrease in turnout, among people over 65. Similarly, the likelihood of turnout among the lowest-income individuals is 4.0 percentage points higher in AVR states.

  No wonder Republicans tend to oppose AVR.

• Primary rules can cause confusion and frustration. Primaries are a strange hybrid beast. In these elections, especially at the presidential level, governments (which represent all the people) cooperate in the process by which particular political parties pick their candidates. Here in California, in most contests we can forget that because the top two vote-getters advance to the general election. But the state legislature wanted our big, highly activated state to have a louder voice in selecting the Democratic presidential candidate this cycle, so they moved the vote up until March. When our primary was in June, it usually didn't matter much.
  
  But this time around, we'll run into an anomaly. California voters are not required to register as a member of a particular party to vote in its primary. Say you are registered as "decline to state" -- as about one third of us are. You can walk into your polling place and ask for the ballot of any party; you'll have no problem making your voice heard in the primary election of your choice.
  
  But this doesn't work if you are among the two thirds of us who vote by mail. To vote in the party primary, you have to tell the county registrar which party you want to vote in. If you don't do that, the mail-in ballot you receive will be blank in the presidential section.
  
  Registrars and candidates have a huge job of public education ahead if we are not to have millions of frustrated Californians next year.