Today, we are pleased to announce our first major victory in the nationwide fight to ensure that Americans seeking health benefits under the Affordable Care Act are also provided the opportunity to register to vote, as guaranteed by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
Covered California, the health exchange for the largest state in the nation, has approved a settlement agreement to provide voter registration services to its clients in accordance with the NVRA. This landmark agreement comes as a result of litigation threatened by Project Vote, the ACLU of California, the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, and Demos on behalf of the League of Women Voters of California, Young Invincibles, and individual plaintiffs.
Millions of Californians will now have the opportunity to register to vote when they apply for health insurance and other benefits through the exchange. Covered California has agreed to immediately mail voter registration applications to the nearly four million California residents who have already applied for benefits, and continue mailings until the exchange can properly incorporate voter registration into all its processes, including online, in person, mail, and telephone transactions. Covered California has agreed to fully comply with the NVRA by the start of the open enrollment period in the fall of 2014.
You can read a press release on this important settlement here.
This agreement comes as part of the larger effort to ensure that all state and federal health exchanges are meeting their voter registration obligations under the NVRA. Project Vote is proud to have joined our partners in securing this important victory, and we hope other health benefit exchanges around the country will look to this agreement as a model for how they can avoid litigation and comply with the voter registration requirements of the NVRA.