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In 1993, Congress enacted the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), also known as the "motor voter" law, in an effort to make the right to vote more accessible to all eligible United States citizens. Its advocates envisioned the NVRA as building on the work of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. While the NVRA is best known for requiring states to offer voter registration forms to applicants for driver's licenses, it also requires that states
- Create mail-in voter registration cards
- Ask all those applying for, recertifying, or submitting a change of address for Food Stamps, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or Women, Infants and Children (WIC) benefits if they would like to register to vote and provide them with a voter registration application
- Provide the same assistance with completing voter registration forms that is provided with other agency applications
- Provide the opportunity for voter registration in all offices that administer State-funded programs whose primary responsibility is providing services to persons with disabilities
In addition, the law
- Encourages states to establish voter registration in unemployment offices
- Requires states to designate other institutions such as libraries, public schools and offices of city and county clerks as voter registration agencies;
- Requires states to follow uniform procedures for confirmation of voter registration;
- Sets guidelines for permissible grounds for removing names from voter rolls
Unfortunately, analysis by Demos and our partners indicates widespread failure to adequately implement the public assistance provision of the NVRA. As documented in Ten Years Later, A Promise Unfulfilled, voter registration applications from public assistance agencies nationwide declined by almost 60% from 1995-1996, when the law was implemented, to 2003-2004.
According to the most recent data from the Election Assistance Commission, this decline has continued: between 1995-1996 and 2005-2006 the number of voter registration applications from public assistance agencies has declined by 80% nationwide. Nine states reported declines of over 90% during this time. In 2005-2006, states were only registering half as many voters at public assistance agencies as they were as recently as 2003-2004.
Congress made clear that the NVRA was intended to increase the number of citizens registered to vote while ensuring that low-income citizens were not discriminated against in such efforts. In 2004, there was a still a large income gap in voter registration rates: according to the U.S. Census, only 59 percent of citizens in households earning less than $15,000 a year were registered to vote compared to 85 percent in households earning $75,000 or more. Full implementation of the NVRA is necessary to fully realize the goals of Congress and to ensure the health of our democratic system.
For more information on the National Voter Registration Act and its implications, please see:
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