CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Advocates of same-day voter registration say the process enfranchises thousands of voters with minimal cost, and little risk of voter fraud.

"It's proven to be a very effective means to improve voter participation," Steven Carbo, senior director of the nonpartisan foundation DEMOS, told members of a Joint Judiciary interim committee Monday.

He said same-day registration makes sense with a highly mobile population, where roughly 25 million voting-age Americans move to new addresses in any given year.

Carbo said nine states and the District of Columbia currently have same-day registration, and states that have adopted the policy have experienced upswings in voter turnout, with a reduction in provisional or challenged ballots.

He said the tradition of closing voter registration weeks ahead of Election Day was a necessity in the days before modern technology.

"In one period of our nation's history, we may have needed these early voter registration deadlines," he said.

Jason Perry, director of the Board of Elections in Stokes County, N.C., said same-day registration has worked well since it was enacted in that state in 2007.

North Carolina permits same-day registration during early voting, but not on Election Day.

In Stokes County, a mostly rural county of 47,000 west of Winston-Salem, Perry said that in 2008, 335 of the 7,700 early votes cast were through same-day registration.

By law, registrations for same-day voters have to be processed within two business days, and Perry said that has not posed a problem for his two-person elections office, even in presidential election years.

"It's just a matter of shifting when you have to do the work," he said.

In North Carolina, a voter must present a valid driver's license or Social Security number for same-day registration, and a statewide computer system validates that the individual is not registered to vote elsewhere.

Carbo said some same-day registration states require photo IDs, while some do not, but all have safeguards to prevent voter fraud.

"When you are registering to vote same-day, you are face-to-face with an elections official," he noted, as opposed to registering to vote by mail.

"It's just a way to enfranchise voters who are eligible to vote," Perry said of same-day registration.

Also Monday, the committee approved a draft resolution for a constitutional amendment to formally create the office of lieutenant governor, to resolve issues of gubernatorial succession as occurred last year when then-Gov. Joe Manchin resigned to be sworn in as a U.S. senator.

As proposed, each candidate for governor would select a lieutenant governor as a running mate.

The proposed amendment would require that, once in office, the governor would be required to appoint the lieutenant governor as a cabinet secretary or equivalent high-ranking position in the administration.

In 2000, the Legislature passed a law designating the Senate president as lieutenant governor, but the title is largely ceremonial.

If approved by two-thirds votes in the House and Senate, the proposed constitutional amendment would have to be approved by a majority of voters in the next general election.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.