Just six years after Arizona was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for failure to comply with Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the state is once again neglecting its federal obligations to help low-income citizens register to vote through public assistance agencies.
Yesterday, on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Arizona and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), attorneys from Project Vote and our allies—including Demos, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the ACLU of Arizona—sent a notice letter to Secretary of State Ken Bennett and other state officials. The letter informs Arizona that the state is out of compliance with the NVRA and faces possible litigation if the problems are not addressed.
“Arizona has not been keeping up with its obligations to comply with federal law, and is currently failing to provide many low-income residents their federally-guaranteed opportunity to register to vote,” said Sarah Brannon, director of the Public Agency Voter Registration Program at Project Vote, in a press release issued yesterday.
The fact that Arizona is once again neglecting their voter registration responsibilities, only six years after signing a settlement agreement with the DOJ, just reinforces the importance of the work Project Vote and our allies are doing to enforce the NVRA and ensure that low-income Americans are not left behind in the democratic process.
“One of the goals of the NVRA was to offer voter registration to people when it was convenient to them, when they are already interacting with the government,” Ms. Brannon told the Arizona Republic. “Not everyone has a driver’s license. Not everyone will interact with the department of motor vehicles. This provides another avenue.”
Read the press release here. Learn more about Project Vote’s Public Agency Registration program here.