A Congressional briefing will be held tomorrow, July 25, to discuss “The Importance of National Voter Registration Act Enforcement Amidst a Down Economy and Aggressive State Voter Purges.” Project Vote—along with representatives from Demos, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the NAACP—will discuss the National Voter Registration Act and how it can protect the voting rights of public assistance and disability clients during an economic downturn and safeguard legitimate voters threatened by misguided voter purges.
Voter registration of low-income citizens increases dramatically when the NVRA is properly implemented and enforced at public assistance agencies. As Americans continue to struggle with an economic downturn, millions of citizens have had to turn to public assistance and are relying on Congress to make sure that states do not ignore their obligation to offer voter registration services to applicants for public assistance benefits.
No state should be allowed to purge eligible citizens from voter rolls; an issue which is addressed explicitly in the NVRA. This election year, some states have implemented harmful purging practices to remove alleged non-citizens from the voter rolls. These practices, however, leave thousands of citizens at the risk of being purged and participating in the democratic process.
The briefing will be held on July 25 at 2:00 p.m. in Longworth House Office Building, Room 1310. To attend, contact Michelle Millben, House Judiciary Committee’s Democratic staff, x5-6906 or at Michelle.Millben[at]mail.house.gov.
Stay tuned for an update from Voting Matters Blog.