Recently, Oregon passed a bill saying all adult citizens known to the state will be automatically registered to vote, unless an individual, upon being notified that he or she had just become registered, then declines to be registered.

All these new automatically registered voters are being listed as independent voters, unless they return a form choosing a party. Consequently, the number of registered voters in Oregon is in the process of expanding. But because most minor parties keep their ballot-qualified status by having a certain percentage of voters as members, one accidental consequence of the new voter registration system is that minor party share of the total registration will shrink.

On March 2, the legislature passed two bills, SB 1501 and SB 1599, saying that for purposes of determining the qualified status of political parties, the denominator for both 2016 and 2018 will be the number of registered voters in the state as of July 2015. That will keep the Independent Party above 5%, which it needs to keep its status as a party entitled to a primary. It will also make it easier for the state’s qualified minor parties to remain qualified. They need either one-half of 1% of the registration, or a vote of 1% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections plus registration of one-tenth of 1%.

California also recently created automatic voter registration, but California solved this problem permanently. The new California law for automatic registration creates a new category of voters, for party affiliation purposes. That new category is “undeclared”. An “undeclared” voter is one who has never made any choice about partisan affiliation, either to be an independent or to be a party member. For purposes of the voter registration test for keeping parties on the ballot, “undeclared” voters are excluded from the calculation.