Student Government officials have been lobbying for N.C. House Bill 91, same-day voter registration, which passed with a 33 to 15 vote from the Senate floor back to the House Wednesday afternoon.

According to Greg Doucette, Student Senate president and intern at the state legislature, the bill allows citizens to register on the spot at “one-stop” voting sites.

“It’s something that’s very important to a lot of people,” Doucette, a senior in computer science, said. “But there are always concerns with voter fraud.”

To prevent voter fraud, Doucette said, this bill creates one difference in one-stop voting sites for same-day voter registration that other sites do not have — the ballot is marked with the person’s name and is retrievable.

He said if the Board of Elections has any reason to be suspicious about a ballot, they can pull it and examine it, so that people do not attempt to vote twice or vote under another name.

According to Josh Weeks, director of government relations in Student Government, SG lobbied in support of the bill because it would benefit students — underclassmen, especially.

“We think it’s important for students,” Weeks, a senior in mechanical engineering, said. “A lot of students are able to vote just now for the first time or want to vote for the first time.”

The bill has been introduced several times in the past and Weeks said although it hasn’t received much opposition, one reason it may have not been passed was that there were other issues on the legislative agenda that were more pressing priorities for that year.

Doucette said the state auditor released a confidential draft report at the hearing for the bill in the House before a delayed vote took place Tuesday.

According to Chris Mears, director of public affairs for the State Auditor’s Office, the office is conducting a “strategic review of the State Board of Elections,” but declined to comment on what the office’s opinion on the bill was and what kind of information the report contained.

“We wanted to make sure that the Senate leadership … had all information at their disposal to cast this legislation,” Mears said.

The report, Mears said, is not completed and the State Auditor will issue a final report when the auditing process ends.

According to Doucette though, this new bill creates “an added window” to verify a person’s identity when they register to vote at a one-stop voting site, helping to eliminate voter fraud.

“The way it’s written, I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “I’ve always had a [negative] response with respect to the fraud issue.”

Doucette said voter registration and one-stop voting is one of the main issues SG hopes to pursue this year.

“We’re working on voter registration plans in the summer,” he said. “[City Council] elections are coming up in October and the deadline to register for that is 45 to 60 days before.”

SG has led voter registration drives in the past, Doucette said, and depending on how they are conducted, he said, they could prove to be successful.

“Student Government did one 2000 to 2001 and it turned out very well,” he said. “We had wooden crates in the residence halls and the Student Government office.”

Students filled out the voter registration forms and dropped them off in the crates. SG officials then took the forms to the Board of Elections.

Publicity is the main component of conducting successful drives, Doucette said, which he hopes to carry out this year.