Like our analyses? Want more? Support our work! Some rights reserved. A website for tracking bills in the U. Sign in. GovTrack Insider Tracking Congress. Engaging Democracy. GovTrack Insider Follow. Tracking Congress. Call Us Receive Updates Sign up for e-updates. Write Us Agency Contacts. Under the NVRA, States must have a general program that makes a reasonable effort to identify and remove the names of voters who have become ineligible to vote by means of a change of address. The program has to be uniform, non-discriminatory, in compliance with the Voting Rights Act and must be completed 90 days before a federal election.
States otherwise have discretion under the NVRA and HAVA in how they design their general program, and States currently undertake a variety of approaches to how they initiate the notice process. For example, some general programs involve a State undertaking a uniform mailing of a voter registration card, sample ballot, or other election mailing to all voters in a jurisdiction, and then using information obtained from returned non-deliverable mail as the basis for correcting voter registration records for apparent moves within a jurisdiction or for initiating the notice process for apparent moves outside a jurisdiction or non-deliverable mail with no forwarding address noted.
Another example involves general programs where States initiate the notice process based on information showing that a voter has not voted in elections nor made contact with a registrar over some period of time. This is not prohibited by the NVRA and its bar on removing voters from the list solely for failure to vote, since it relies on the NVRA notice process, and thus utilizes both a notice and a waiting period of two federal general elections.
Section 8 requires States to complete any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official list of eligible voters not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary election or general election for federal office. This 90 day deadline applies to state list maintenance verification activities such as general mailings and door to door canvasses.
The NVRA contains fail-safe provisions to enable such persons who show up to vote on a federal election day to update their registration and to vote in that election even though they have not notified the registrar of the address change:. A central voting location need not be made available by the registrar if State law allows the person to vote at either the old or new polling place in the current election upon oral or written affirmation of the address change.
If a person has not moved, but the registration records indicate that a person has moved from an address covered by a polling place, that person shall be permitted to vote at that polling place upon oral or written affirmation by the registrant that the registrant continues to reside at his or her address previously known to the registrar.
Section 8 of the NVRA requires that States keep and make available for public inspection, for a period of at least two years, all records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters, except to the extent that such records relate to a declination to register to vote or to the identity of a voter registration agency through which any particular voter is registered.
The records to be kept shall include lists of the names and addresses of all persons to whom Section 8 d notices are sent, and information concerning whether or not each such person has responded to the notice, as of the date that inspection of the records is made. In addition, an independent requirement in 52 U. The Department of Justice can require that such records be produced for inspection and copying through a written demand, and a lawsuit to enforce such demand. The NVRA requires each State to designate a State officer or employee as the chief State election official to be responsible for coordinating State responsibilities under the Act.
Because of the importance of monitoring compliance with the NVRA's voter registration requirements, States should consider employing a person at the State level to serve as the NVRA coordinator for the State. States must report various voter registration information to the U. This includes the number of voter-registration applications by mail and from motor vehicle offices, public-assistance offices, offices providing state-funded programs primarily serving persons with disabilities, Armed Forces recruitment offices, and other state-designated offices and agencies.
Likewise, States must report voter registration list maintenance information in response to the EAC survey every two years. The Department of Justice carefully considers this data, among other information, in determining how it will carry out its enforcement responsibilities. To facilitate accurate NVRA data reporting to the EAC, states should consider having a system in place to track the number of voter registration applications from each designated voter registration agency.
Barcodes or other coding could be included on voter registration applications to designate the agency from which the form originated. Such coding can be implemented in such a way that also allows states to comply with the obligation not to disclose the office at which any particular individual has registered to vote. Certain States and local jurisdictions are covered by the language minority requirements of the Voting Rights Act VRA for specific language minority groups.
The VRA requires that when covered states and jurisdictions provide voter registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other materials or information relating to the electoral process, including ballots, they must provide them in the language of the applicable minority group as well as in the English language. Thus, each State or jurisdiction covered by the language minority requirements of the VRA should consider how to ensure that NVRA voter registration opportunities are conducted so as to provide language access to covered limited-English proficient language minority citizens so that they have equal access to the voter registration process.
Various language resources are also available on the EAC website. These include versions of the national mail voter registration form translated into Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. And these resources also include a glossary of election terms in six languages. The U. Private parties may also bring litigation in federal court to enforce the NVRA. Election Assistance Commission is responsible for administration of the national voter registration form, as well as State reporting under the NVRA.
As a general matter, the Department of Justice does not issue advisory opinions concerning the statutes that it enforces. The Department will certainly consider inquiries from State officials concerning the NVRA, however, in the hope of providing assistance.
You may reach the Voting Section at its toll-free telephone number, You are here Home » Civil Rights Division. The National Voter Registration Act Of NVRA These questions and answers are designed to provide information and guidance to state and local officials as well as the general public concerning the provisions of the NVRA and its interaction with the other statutes enforced by the Department. What is a motor vehicle agency required to do with completed voter registration applications accepted at its offices?
Can a State develop its own mail voter registration application? What are the requirements for the national mail voter registration application? What requirements does federal law place on first-time voters who register to vote by mail? My name is John Samples. I want to thank you Mr. Chairman for inviting me to testify before the committee about election reform. Differences notwithstanding, we all agree that the franchise is sacred and should be above mere partisan or individual advantage. At the same time, in the spirit of the Founding Fathers, we seek to improve our political system when necessary and possible.
I appreciate the opportunity to testify today about some shortcomings of our current electoral system. Congress succinctly stated the aims of the law:.
The National Voter Registration Act has clearly fulfilled one of those purposes. Registration rolls grew by 20 percent from to Yet enhanced voter registration was never an end in itself. Many activists and experts believed the United States suffered from declining voter participation and that increasing registration would lead to higher voter turnout.
Both of these beliefs have turned out to be wrong. For many years political scientists saw a steady decline in the electoral turnout of the voting age population and as a percentage of registered voters. Leaders in the discipline also thought that reducing the costs of voting — primarily through easier registration — would arrest this steady decline and fortify American democracy. The National Voter Registration Act thus grew out of the findings of political science.
Political scientists have traditionally measured voting turnout as a percentage of the voting age population. Popkin and McDonald have produced a new and more accurate measure of the American population eligible to vote. The United States did see a decline in voting turnout among eligible voters around Conventional wisdom to the contrary, the United States had experienced steady turnout at the polls for about three decades.
There has been no steady decline, nor a crisis of legitimacy for the American republic. The National Voter Registration Act aimed to solve a problem that did not exist.
Participation in the Presidential election of was the lowest since while estimates of turnout in suggest an average performance. The same can be said of the off year elections in and This is not really surprising. As the political scientist Martin Wattenberg has pointed out, states like North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin have no or very lenient registration requirements, and yet all have seen declines in voting turnout.
In summary, we have received few of the benefits promised by the National Voter Registration Act. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the negative side of the ledger.
Neither goal has been met. The Act made it harder to verify the identity of voters seeking to register. For example, to remove a voter who has moved from the rolls of a voting district, the local jurisdiction has two choices. First, they could get written confirmation of the move from the citizen.
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