Today Project Vote is proud to release The NVRA at Fifteen: A Report to Congress, the first comprehensive report evaluating the implementation of this landmark law. Written by voting rights attorney Estelle Rogers, the new report evaluates how four major provisions of the NVRA have—and more importantly haven’t—been successfully implemented: the “motor voter” program, the mail-in registration form, public assistance agency registration, and list maintenance procedures.

As Frances Fox Piven, noted voting rights scholar and activist, explains in her foreword to The NVRA at Fifteen, “the reform of American registration procedures has met widespread resistance, some of it attributable no doubt to bureaucratic inertia, and some of it perhaps politically motivated.” Rogers explains how lack of enforcement, failures of state and federal leadership, and restrictive court decisions have left the full potential of the NVRA unrealized, and have left millions of disenfranchised Americans still awaiting the promise of a truly inclusive democracy.

This new report is also a call for renewed leadership to improve the implementation of the NVRA nationwide, recommending practices that states can adopt to improve their compliance, offering suggestions for legislative changes Congress could enact, and emphasizing the importance of ensuring that the Department of Justice finally commits fully to enforcing the NVRA.

To read this important new report, click here. 

On July 9, Project Vote  and a coalition of voting rights groups filed lawsuits in Indiana and New Mexico, to compel public assistance agencies in those states to provide their clients with the opportunity to register to vote. Today, Project Vote is releasing a new report, Registering Low-Income Voters through Public Assistance Agencies in Missouri, which shows just how well this program can work. 

Missouri went from having one of the worst public agency registration rates in the nation to having one of the best through the work of the Public Agency Voter Registration Project, a coalition of voting rights groups to bring states into compliance with the public agency registration requirements of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). This new case study explains how this success was achieved, from the first surveys to document the poor performance of Missouri public agencies, through the court order that compelled compliance in July 2008, all the way through to last month's successful settlement of the lawsuit.  As a result of this work, public assistance agencies in the state of Missouri went from collecting fewer than 8,000 applications a year to collecting over 100,000 applications in just eight months.

To read this exciting new case study, click here. 

July 9, 2009

CONTACT: Nicole Kovite, Project Vote, 202.546.4173 ext. 303

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Citing clear evidence that Indiana public assistance agencies have violated their federally mandated responsibility to offer tens of thousands of clients the opportunity to register to vote each year, a coalition of voting rights groups filed suit today against officials in Indiana for violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

The suit was filed on behalf of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the Indiana State Conference of the NAACP, and Paris Alexander, an Indiana resident and Food Stamp Program client who was not provided the opportunity to register to vote. The plaintiffs are represented by lawyers from Project Vote, Dēmos, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), the NAACP, and the ACLU of Indiana, and by the law firms of Miner, Barnhill & Galland and Schwartz, Lichten, & Bright. Defendants include officials from Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), the co-directors of the Indiana Election Division, and the members of the Indiana Election Commission.

July 9, 2009

CONTACT: Yolanda Sheffield, Project Vote, 202.546.4173 ext. 302

SANTA FE, NM – Citing clear evidence that New Mexico public assistance agencies and motor vehicle offices have violated their federally mandated responsibility to offer tens of thousands of New Mexicans each year the opportunity to register to vote, a coalition of voting rights groups filed suit today against officials in New Mexico for violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

The Complaint was filed on behalf of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and on behalf of four New Mexico residents who were denied the opportunity to register to vote when they went to a state agency to obtain public assistance benefits or obtain a driver’s license or state identification card. The plaintiffs are represented by voting rights groups Project Vote,Dēmos, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), as well as by the laws firms of Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg& Ives, DLA Piper U.S., and Schwartz, Lichten and Bright. Defendants namedin the suit include New Mexico’s Secretary of State, Mary Herrera, and officials from the New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD), the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division, and the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department.

June 25, 2009

Kansas City, MO — Low-income voters in Missouri will see increased access to voter registration at Missouri public assistance offices as a result of a settlement agreement filed today in federal district court. The settlement concludes a lawsuit filed against the Department of Social Services (DSS) in April 2008 by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and St. Louis resident Dionne O’Neal charging widespread violations of the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).  United States District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey had previously issued a preliminary injunction in July 2008 directing DSS immediately to comply with the NVRA’s requirement that DSS offices provide voter registration applications and assistance to their clients.   

“Over 100,000 low-income Missouri citizens already have registered to vote at public assistance offices in the few short months since the Court ordered Missouri DSS to follow the law.  Today’s settlement confirms that DSS now will be a partner in ensuring the voting rights of all Missouri citizens, fulfilling a key goal of the NVRA,” said Brenda Wright, director of the Democracy Program at Dēmos and counsel for plaintiffs. “Other states across the country that have ignored the voting rights of low-income citizens for far too long should take note of Missouri’s example and bring their practices into compliance with the law.”