Lax NVRA Compliance Leaves Void for Nonprofits to Fill

Last month, Project Vote and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a complaint to force Louisiana into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), and ensure that low-income residents have the opportunity to register to vote. The suit follows in the wake of other successful complaints in both Ohio and Missouri where the number of voters registering at public agencies has ballooned. In Ohio in the first six months of 2010 more than 100,000 low-income residents registered to vote at public assistance offices. That number (17,000 applications per month) is almost a ten-fold increase in the number of registration applications public assistance offices collected before the lawsuit (1,775 per month).

Lawsuits are not always necessary to force compliance, however. Colorado officials worked proactively to bring the state into compliance with the NVRA and as a result, public agency registrations in Colorado increased from just over 3,300 in 2007 to nearly 44,000 in 2010.

While it is critical that public agencies fulfill their obligation to register voters, this alone is not enough. There is still a crucial role for nonprofits to play. Many nonprofit clients receive public assistance and when state agencies do not actively register these potential voters, nonprofits must ensure that their clients nevertheless have an opportunity to register to vote. Even in states that are fully compliant with the NVRA, many eligible voters will still be missed, including individuals served by your organization. Nonprofits can help close this gap by ensuring that your clients have the opportunity to register, participate, and make their voices heard. Get started today!

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Enforcing the Motor-Voter Law

The 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) was designed to increase participation in federal elections. As a provision, state motor vehicle offices began offering clients the opportunity to register to vote, and the law became widely known as the motor-voter law.

However, the law also requires public assistance offices to proactively register voters. Although many potential voters can be reached through DMV offices, agencies that administer food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, disability assistance and child health programs are able to target historically underrepresented populations, such as low-income individuals, people with disabilities, minority populations, and new military recruits. Unfortunately, enforcement among public assistance offices (until recently) has been lax.

That began to change last year with the settlement of a 2006 lawsuit--backed by voting rights groups--aimed at bringing Ohio into compliance with the NVRA.

The result of the case has been overwhelming: in the first six months of 2010, more than 100,000 low-income Ohio residents applied to register to vote at public assistance offices. That number (17,000 applications per month) is almost a ten-fold increase in the number of registration applications public assistance offices collected before the lawsuit (1,775 per month).

A similar lawsuit against Missouri was settled in July 2008 and since then, nearly 250,000 voter applications have been submitted through public assistance agencies in the state over the past two years.

On the national level, the Justice Department will also begin enforcing the public assistance section of the law. In April, the Justice Department sent states a set of guidelines, marking the first time in 15 years that the Justice Department has explained what kinds of offices are covered and what procedures are to be used.

This national push will hopefully register hundreds of thousands of additional, hard to reach voters; voting rights groups estimate that 2-3 million low-income Americans could be registered each year if all states complied with the NVRA.

Read more about the Ohio lawsuit here.

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Missouri DSS Ordered to Ensure Citizens Registered

On July 15, a U.S. District Court in Missouri ordered the Department of Social Services to ensure that each local welfare office in the state asks everyone who seeks help if that person is registered to vote, and to provide a voter registration form for those who aren’t registered. The 1993 “Motor Voter Law” passed by Congress in 1993 requires this activity. ACORN sued the Missouri Department of Social Services after gathering evidence that the federal law wasn’t being followed.