The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Lesia Liss, D-Macomb County, would allow voters to register to vote online without having to fill out a paper application at a Secretary of State office.

By registering online, students attending college would not have to travel home to register to vote, which would encourage more young people to participate in the electoral process, Liss said.

“If you make it more accessible to them and make it easier to register, more people will get involved, especially first-time voters,” Liss said.

“We can start getting the young people to register (and) start looking into the voting process and to pay attention. I would like to see them vote.”

If people were allowed to register online, more students might vote on Election Day, said John Dowell, the co-founder of MSU YouVote.

“The easier we can make it for people to register, the more participation we can have from voters,” Dowell said.

“More voters equals more democracy.”

Although the online system might be more convenient for students, it could compromise the elections itself, said state Rep. Kim Meltzer, R-Clinton Township.

Meltzer is the minority vice chair of the state House Ethics and Elections Committee, which approved the proposal. She said she worried the bill lacked security measures and allowed for possible voter fraud.

“In concept it’s a good idea,” she said. “(But) we cannot compromise the integrity of the election process for the conveniences or efficiencies that may occur.”

The proposal could conflict with the Secretary of State’s recent plan to allow Michigan residents to change their addresses on identification such as driver’s licenses, said Kelly Chesney, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State.

When resident’s can change their addresses, it would update their voter registration as well, which means students could update their residency to their college addresses and would be able to vote in that district, Chesney said.

Being able to change address information would conflict with voter registration because it would make it difficult to confirm a person’s identity, Chesney said.

“There has to be a way that the local election official can verify identity,” she said. “There would be no way for us to implement this before the next November election.”

The bill also would allow for voters to register until 4 p.m. the day prior to an election, which is a significant change from the current 30 day waiting period, Chesney said.

“Our local election officials have a lot of work to do to plan for an election,” she said. “Allowing someone to register the day before an election doesn’t allow them to properly plan for the voters on election day.”

Despite some negative aspects, psychology senior Chelsea Pantano said she would welcome an online voting system to encourage more college-aged people to register and vote.

“Voting is a huge issue and people are trying to talk about it more,” Pantano said. “Young kids complain a lot about the problems that they see, but they don’t register to vote to do anything about it.”