States should also be encouraged to adopt Election Day registration programs allowing eligible voters — including those who have been knocked off the rolls — to register at the polls. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia follow this approach, and they see turnout rates as much as 10 percent higher than those of states that don’t.
Two more states may soon adopt Election Day registration: Maryland, where the State Legislature has placed a measure on the ballot in November that would create such a program and Michigan, where the A.C.L.U. is supporting an effort to gather enough signatures to put a similar initiative on the ballot.
Ultimately, if legislatures and courts won’t protect our voting rights, it may be up to us to do it ourselves at the ballot box.