The Motor Vehicle Administration is planning to overhaul its voter registration procedures after an analysis showed that one in four motorists who tried to sign up at an MVA office never made it to the voter rolls.

The agency plans to discard the paper-based process that lawmakers described as “antiquated” and move to the fully automated system long desired by Maryland State Board of Elections officials, who field angry phone calls every year from Marylanders who discover that they’re not registered when they try to vote on Election Day.

“There is always room for improvement,” said MVA Administrator John Kuo. “We’re always constantly looking at other practices around the country.”

The effort comes after The Baltimore Sun reported that 144,442 would-be voters started the registration process at an MVA office during the past four years but failed to get on the voter rolls.

Kuo took a half-dozen staffers this month to Delaware, identified by The Sun as having what is widely viewed as the premier “motor-voter” system in the country. They concluded that it would be relatively painless for Maryland to copy it. Kuo is hopeful that the new process will be in place by next year.

House Majority Leader Kumar Barve expressed outrage this year when he heard committee testimony detailing thousands of failures in the MVA system. He said it is “terrific” that the MVA wants to fix their system.

“I do wish they’d done it sooner,” the Montgomery County Democrat said. “I

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