Americans will be presented with far-reaching choices this November as we vote in presidential and congressional races. Sadly, millions of low-income citizens likely won’t be participating in those elections for the simple reason that they won’t be registered to vote. Many states have in recent years failed to offer voter registration to food stamp, WIC, Medicaid, and TANF applicants and recipients, as required since 1995 under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), Section 7.

Today, the House Elections Subcommittee is convening a hearing to investigate what’s gone wrong with NVRA compliance and what can be done to turn things around before November. Demos, Project Vote, and representatives from North Carolina and Michigan will testify. Collectively, they will show how tremendous voter registration increases can be achieved through enlightened state leadership and strong public-private partnerships.

The income gap among the American electorate weighed heavily in Congress when it enacted the NVRA. It directed that voter registration be offered at public assistance offices, as at departments of motor vehicles and through the mails, so that low-income and disabled Americans who are less likely to own cars would not be disadvantaged by a strictly DMV-based system.

At first — and after a string of unsuccessful legal challenges to the statute — the agency registration provisions of the law produced results. Millions of new voters were added to the registration rolls in the first few years of NVRA implementation. But over time, changes in state administrations, turnover at state agencies, and lagging enforcement by the Department of Justice took a toll. The number of voter registration applications generated by public assistance agencies has declined by 79 percent since the initial implementation of the law. While more than 2.6 million such applications were recorded in 1995-1996, only 540,000 were reported in 2005-2006. Recent investigations by Demos, Project Vote and others groups in numerous states found local public benefits offices not offering voter registration to agency applicants and clients, the lack of on-site voter registration applications, staff who were entirely unaware of the obligation to offer voter registration, and other failures to follow the law.

These declines can be reversed. Working in partnerships with Dēmos and its allies, North Carolina has implemented a comprehensive compliance plan that has achieved dramatic results. While the state registered only 11,600 persons at public assistance agencies in a recent two-year period (2005-2006), North Carolina has registered over 34,500 persons from February 2007 to February 2008, the first year of North Carolina’s re-implementation program. Iowa witnessed an astounding 3000 percent increase in agency registration after it implemented a similar initiative in 2004. Substantial gains will likely be seen in Michigan after the state Department of Human Services rolls out a new civic engagement program at its public benefits offices.

Even greater voter registration gains might be achieved if recent interest in NVRA enforcement by the Department of Justice proves sincere. After years of near-hibernation, the DOJ issued letters to13 states last August 2007 inquiring into their compliance with the NVRA’s requirements for registration at public assistance agencies. This followed years of studied neglect of the issue by DOJ; evidence of state disregard of the law presented to the Justice Department by Demos and allied organizations in 2004, and raised in a 2005 letter by 30 Members of Congress to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, was roundly ignored. Recent congressional pressure and controversy over the politicization of the Justice Department may have prompted a change of heart at the DOJ.

The promise of the National Voter Registration Act has not yet been achieved. Millions of low-income Americans have been unable to exercise the most fundamental right and responsibility of citizenship because of states’ failure to make voter registration readily available at public benefit agencies. Nevertheless, the strong compliance programs and best practices developed in North Carolina, Iowa and Michigan are encouraging signs of the gains that can be achieved. Given the political will — or, if needed, the threat of litigation — other states can follow their lead and help every American access the vote, regardless of income or wealth.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 10:36 am and is filed under Politics .