When Randall Avila paid a visit to his local Department of Motor Vehicles a couple of years ago to renew his driver’s license, he was presented with a question at the end of his transaction: “Are you a U.S. citizen?”

Avila, the executive director of the Republican Party of Orange County, knew the question was for California’s Motor Voter program. Officially launched in 2018, the program automatically registers eligible Californians completing a driver’s license, state identification or change of address transaction through the DMV to vote, unless they choose to opt-out.

“It’s a great program for voter registration,” Avila said. “But I think we have to see what it becomes in terms of actively getting people to cast a ballot.”

The program has become the top method for Californians to register to vote for the first time or update an existing registration, according to a new analysis of voter registration and voting behavior in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 general elections from USC’s Center for Inclusive Democracy.

But it has not translated to a higher rate of voter turnout, the study found.

Over 43% of new, eligible voters registered at the DMV since the program’s implementation, and 58.7% of eligible voters updated their registration at the DMV to reflect a name or address change or an update to their political party affiliation. That’s higher than any other registration method, the study found. And it’s also an increase from 2016 when only about 3.3% of eligible voters used the DMV to register to vote.

The report also found it is the most-used voter registration method for Asian American, Black and Latino first-time registrants. Prior to the program’s implementation, the report says, less than 1% of Asian American registrants were either new DMV registrants or re-registrants, but that number spiked to 31.6% in 2020.

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California’s younger voters, those between 18 and 24 years old, saw the largest increase in registered voter turnout across all age groups since California Motor Voter was implemented, 13.5 percentage points, according to the report.

But people who were automatically registered to vote through the DMV turned out in lower rates in the 2020 general election than those who registered online, regardless of race and ethnicity, according to the report.

Additionally, the turnout gap between voters who registered at the DMV and those who registered online was starkest among voters between the ages of 18 and 24: 218,397 out of of 375,576, or 58% of new DMV registrants in this age group voted in the 2020 general election, compared to 364,286 out of 444,800, or 81.9% of new online registrants.

“It’s widely understood that after you get somebody registered, you still have to get them out to vote. And clearly, by the lower registered voter turnout numbers, it may be an additional challenge for people who register through the DMV,” said Mindy Romero, the director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy. “We are emphasizing that outreach and voter registration efforts might be even more important for the DMV.”

Local political leaders on both sides of the aisle share the belief: Voter outreach shouldn’t stop at the DMV.

“Obviously the program has been successful in terms of registering voters, which is always a good thing,” said Avila. “We always want people to be registered.”

But the program, he said, has made voter registration “a passive activity, as opposed to someone actively saying, ‘I want to register to vote.’”

Ada Briceño, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, “couldn’t be more thrilled” about the success of the program in terms of registering voters, but she, too, maintains that is only the first of many steps to get people to cast ballots.

“Having the ability to be automatically enrolled at the DMV gives an opportunity for more Americans, especially for disenfranchised communities, to participate in the political process,” Briceño said. “But we have the responsibility to teach voters how crucial their voices are — via phone, knocking on their doors, reaching out to them one-on-one.”

Orange County recorded an all-time high of voter turnout in 2020 at 87.3%. Turnout was also high in 2018 when 71% of registered voters participated in the midterm election.

But that number went down in the recent 2022 midterms, when voter turnout in Orange County was 54.7%, according to data from the California secretary of state.

OC GOP holds in-person voter registration drives at community events as well as naturalization ceremonies, Avila said, but since automatic voter registration at the DMV has gone into play, the effectiveness of in-person drives has decreased, he said.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who are already registered, and there isn’t a big pool of folks attending these events who aren’t registered,” Avila said.

Democrats in Orange County have a 4.5% voter registration advantage over Republicans — an advantage they’ve maintained in the county since 2019.

But that didn’t necessarily translate into more ballots cast for Democratic candidates in last year’s midterm: Orange County voters preferred Republican challenger Brian Dahle over incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom as well as Republican candidates for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, controller, treasurer, attorney general and insurance commissioner.

OC voters also chose Republican challenger Mark Meuser over incumbent Sen. Alex Padilla, who sponsored Motor Voter when he was secretary of state.

“The Democratic vote is much higher in presidential years. We’re obviously always working to change that,” Briceño said.

“But I think every chance that we have to make the process easier, whether it’s more voting locations, whether it’s adding more hours, whether it’s having the DMV register voters, is crucial to have more people have a voice in our democracy,” she said.

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