Implementation of the National Voter Registration Act
The National Voter Registration Act (also known as the "Motor Voter" bill) was passed by Congress in 1993. Building on the work of the Voting Rights Act, the NVRA requires states to affirmatively offer voter registration services.
Learn more about implementation of NVRA here.
(This issue paper was created by the National Network for Election Reform, the largest national coalition dedicated to improving election administration at the federal, state, and local level.)
In The Courts
Harkless v. Blackwell
Recent News
September 21, 2006: Voting rights advocates filed suit in Cleveland today, charging that Ohio’s Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, and the Director of its Department of Job and Family Services, Barbara Riley, have violated the rights of thousands of low-income Ohioans by failing to provide voter registration opportunities in public assistance offices as required by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The NVRA is a federal law enacted thirteen years ago to encourage voter registration and turnout in elections.
Read the complaint here.
The lawsuit, brought by Carrie Harkless, Tameca Mardis and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), alleges that offices of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services failed to provide Ms. Harkless, Ms. Mardis and thousands of other low-income Ohioans with the opportunity to register to vote or change their voter registration address during visits to DJFS offices to apply for or recertify their eligibility for public assistance benefits. Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Voting Rights Institute, Project Vote, Dechert LLP and Cleveland attorney Donna Taylor Kolis.
The NVRA is commonly known as the Motor-Voter law for its requirement that states provide voter registration opportunities when residents apply for drivers’ licenses. Congress also included in the law a provision requiring that voter registration must be offered during most transactions at public assistance agencies to ensure that those who do not visit motor vehicle departments still have an opportunity to register to vote. Low-income citizens are less likely to own a car and are among the least likely to register to vote at motor vehicle departments, making the public assistance requirement crucial in reaching these citizens. Only 68% of Ohioans in households making less than $15,000 a year were registered to vote in 2004 versus 92% of individuals in households making $75,000 or more. The lawsuit charges that the state has failed badly in enforcing these requirements, with some DJFS offices failing to register a single person in a two-year period and others registering only a handful.
Jon Greenbaum, Director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the organizations representing plaintiffs, said “After repeated notifications, the state has not remedied this clear-cut violation of the law. We therefore had no choice but to ask the federal court to do so.” In May 2006, the law firm of Dechert LLP, together with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the National Voting Rights Institute, sent a formal notice letter to Secretary of State Blackwell informing him of the state’s violation of the NVRA. Mr. Blackwell, however, responded by denying that the state had any problem with noncompliance, and declined to develop any plan to remedy the longstanding violations. Read more.
May 12, 2006: The Lawyers’ Committee along with the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) notified Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell that the State of Ohio is not in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), and demanded that he take immediate steps to bring Ohio into compliance. The notice letter, which is a pre-requisite to filing a lawsuit under the NVRA, was sent on behalf of the Ohio chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a non-partisan organization that advocates for the rights of moderate to low-income people. Specifically, the May 12 notice letter advises Secretary Blackwell of systematic, statewide deficiencies in Ohio’s compliance with NVRA provisions that require a state’s public assistance agencies to provide voter registration opportunities and assistance to their clients. Both anecdotal and statistical evidence confirm that Ohio’s public assistance agencies are failing to provide the voter registration opportunities required by Section 7 of the NVRA. The Ohio notice letter marks the first in a number of collaborative efforts between the Lawyers’ Committee, the NVRI and other groups to enforce Section 7 of the NVRA.
Read our letter to Secretary of State Blackwell here.