DEMOCRATS in the US Congress are proposing an overhaul of voter registration rules to make the right to vote more accessible.

The Government by the People Act championed by Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes would create automatic national voter registration and expand access to online registration.

It would increase federal support for state voter systems, including more paper ballots to reduce fraud, and would restore voting rights to ex-prisoners.

It restores protections for voters enshrined in the 1965 Voting Rights Act to clamp down on “purges” of the electoral roll by state officials.

Republicans stand accused of seeking to disenfranchise poorer, black and Native American voters in a number of different states. 

Georgia’s Governor-Elect Brian Kemp refused to process over 50,000 voter registrations before last year’s gubernatorial election when in his previous role of secretary of the state. Critics said 80 per cent of the registrations were from people of colour and the forced delay was aimed at lowering the Democrat vote.

In North Dakota, a new law requiring voters to have permanent addresses was seen as a bid to prevent residents of Native American reservations from voting.

Republicans in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri have also been charged with large scale purges of the electoral roll that have denied the vote to hundreds of thousands of US citizens.

“We want to make it easier to vote, not harder,” Mr Sarbanes said, saying the Bill would pave the way for an active House of Representatives agenda that could raise the minimum wage, lower the price of medicines and protect the environment.

However, Republicans have vowed to block its passage in the Senate, which they still control.