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California expanding voter registration through Obamacare

Daily Kos 

By: Joan McCarter

In a move sure to make conservative heads explode, California is going to send voter registration cards to everyone who has signed up for health insurance through Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange under Obamacare.
Under a deal announced Monday by several voting-rights groups, the state will send voter registration cards to nearly 3.8 million Californians who have applied for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.The move will ensure that many residents can complete or update their registration in time for the June 3 primary election, representatives of the groups said, and bring the state into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The law requires that certain state offices provide clients with registration opportunities.

California had intended to make this move all along, but had delayed doing so. The organizations involved—the ACLU of California, the League of Women Voters, Young Invincibles—served notice to the state that they intended to sue if the state didn’t make sure everyone who had signed up this winter would be able to register in time for the state’s primary. The state says it will be prepared to get everyone signing up starting in the fall the opportunity to register to vote. They’ll send voter registration applications with paper applications and will provide links for those applying online.