DNC Resumes Direct Voter Registration, Boosts State Funding, Chairman Says

The Democratic National Committee is shifting resources into year-round organizing and voter registration while increasing monthly support for every state party, DNC chair Ken Martin said in a Sept. 30 conversation with former chair Jaime Harrison recorded at DNC headquarters. “We just kicked off this week, our partisan voter registration drive,” Martin said. He and Harrison both argued that the party stepped back from direct registration for two decades after the 2002 McCain–Feingold Act. According to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, this law meant national parties could no longer use unlimited donations to pay for voter registration or other party-building. Parties could still run registration drives, but they had to pay with money raised under the normal per-donor limits and publicly report the spending....