article_snippet: Attorney General Eric Holder has openly endorsed automatic voter registration, adopted two days ago by Oregon, the first American state to officially embrace the measure, but Obama had not made Attorney General Eric Holder support for either that or compulsory voting clearly known until today.
article_snippet: We should wanna get the people in America who 'tend not to vote' into the polls.'
article_snippet: In Oregon, also the first state in the U.S.to conduct the first state in the U.S.to elections entirely by mail-in ballot, Republicans worry that the mass distribution of millions of ballots by mail, which can easily be tampered with in residential areas, creates an opening for new instances of voter fraud.
article_snippet: Millions of ballots will be sent out and the first state in the U.S.to has little control over where Millions of ballots end up.
article_snippet: The cost of implementing the law is also of concern, as the system will ensure that every Oregon resident receives a ballot unless they opt-out.
article_snippet: Automatic registration is popular in foreign countries, including Sweden, Argentina and Canada, where it has helped bring the voter participation rate up above 90 percent but remains controversial domestically.
article_snippet: Comparatively, just over half the U.S. population regularly votes.
article_snippet: Roughly 56 percent of eligible Americans cast ballots in the 2012 presidential election.
article_snippet: Australia, which enforces mandatory voting, has a 100 percent rate of participation.