Hillary Clinton calls for automatic voter registration

WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton has proposed automatic voter registration for every American citizen when they turn 18.

Clinton, 67, who would formally launch her presidential campaign from New York later this month, in a speech at Texas Southern University in Houston called for expanding Americans' voting rights.

Her remarks centered on a call for universal, automatic voter registration for every American in every state when they turn 18, unless they actively choose to opt out.

She also called for a new national standard of no fewer than 20 days of early in-person voting in every state, including opportunities for weekend and evening voting.

Additionally, she urged Congress to restore key sections of the Voting Rights Act which the Supreme Court invalidated, among other proposals.

"I am calling for universal, automatic voter registration. Everyone, every young man or young woman, in every state in the union should be automatically registered to vote when they turn eighteen - unless they actively choose to opt-out," Clinton said in her speech.

"I believe this would have a profound impact on our elections and our democracy. Between a quarter and a third of all eligible Americans remain unregistered and therefore unable to vote," she said.

"We should modernise our entire approach to registration. The current system is a relic from an earlier age. It relies on a blizzard of paper records and it's full of errors," she said.