Monday, May 20 is the 20th Anniversary of the signing on the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Let’s celebrate! Join us Monday, May 20 at 1 PM ET for a Twitter chat on #NVRAat20.
Join Project Vote, Demos, Fem2pt0, Asian American Justice Center, Fair Elections Legal Network, Advancement Project, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, League of Women Voters, Tennessee Citizen Action, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and others for the #NVRAat20 tweet chat on Monday, May 20 at 1 PM ET. We’ll discuss how Americans register to vote, the importance of this cornerstone law, how Project Vote and partners are taking action to improve enforcement of the NVRA to help more Americans register to vote, and what is the future for voter registration in the U.S.
Prior to the NVRA, there were widely divergent and confusing state laws that hindered voter registration. States each had their own forms, systems, requirements, and procedures for voter registration and voter list maintenance, creating too much confusion and too much potential for partisan manipulation. Voting rights, civic participation, and citizens pushed for the NVRA to make it easier for all Americans to register to vote and to maintain their registration.
The major provisions of the NVRA require:
- That registration services be offered at driver’s license bureaus; public assistance and disability agencies;
- The creation of a simple, national federal voter registration form that could substitute for the state forms that local officials had controlled (with the added mandate that states allow for mail-in registration); and
- Safeguards on the procedures for purging voters already on the rolls.
Thanks to the NVRA, an estimated 141 million Americans have applied to register to vote through their DMV or public agencies.
More work needs to be done to make voting free, fair, and accessible for all!
Take action in support of reducing barriers to voting. Let’s make Same Day Registration universally available. Sign the petition: http://chn.ge/10pAR2H
The NVRA has fulfilled its promise of streamlining voter registration and offering more access to voter registration through government offices. Now is the time for voters and advocates to push for Same Day Registration (also known as Election Day Registration), the next step in reducing barriers to voting caused by registration requirements. Same Day Registration means that eligible Americans can register when they go to the polls and cast their ballots. A national law was introduced this year, and we’ve created a petition to demand action to bring Same Day Registration to every state on the occasion of this important anniversary.
Photo by DH Parks via Creative Commons license