In early 1999, as a third-year law student, I had a conversation one day with a friend about an idea that seemed like a great concept on paper but that could never actually happen in the real world—automatic voter registration. That spring, I published my Note on the issue. Jason P.W. Halperin, Note, A Winner at The Polls: A Proposal for Mandatory Voter Registration, 3 NYU J. Legis. Pub. Policy 69-123 (1999).