We gushed about a few voter access bills in this week's news section, now today brings good news courtesy of the youth voting advocacy group Washington Bus that two of those bills have passed in the House:

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Bus spokesman Alex Miller notes that "election day voter registration" is misleading, as the bill was significantly amended to appease county auditors, who feared the extra work that same-day registration would entail, and to woo Republicans. The bill actually moves the online voter registration deadline up from 29 days before an election to 11 days, while bumping the in-person deadline back from eight days to 11 days. It also moves the mail-in change of county form deadline up from 29 days to 28 days. The compromises worked; nine Republicans voted in favor of the bill.

"It's less exciting but still an improvement," says Miller. "That was the bill's only hope of progressing in the Senate."

In less complicated news, 16- and 17-year olds will now be able to pre-register to vote at the DMV!

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Now here's hoping these bills can weather the Senate.