Voting rights groups put the state of Michigan on notice after finding evidence that the state has failed to provide low-income residents with a legally mandated opportunity to register to vote.
On Friday, Project Vote, Demos, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the NAACP sent a pre-litigation notice letter to Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, demanding that the secretary immediately act to bring the state into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
According to evidence cited in the letter, voter registration applications submitted through Michigan public assistance agencies has decreased by 87% between the 1995-1996 and 2007-2008 reporting periods. Field investigations also found that public assistance clients were not provided with voter registration applications.
As stated in the press release today:
“According to the notice letter, Michigan’s policies and practices run afoul of the NVRA’s requirements. The NVRA requires agencies to affirmatively offer voter registration with every application for benefits, recertification, or change of address transaction. However, for a vast majority of interactions, Michigan requires distribution of a voter registration application only when the applicant affirmatively requests one, and the offer is buried deep within the benefits applications where people are unlikely to see it. Furthermore, according to the field investigations, three out of four clients who do request a voter registration application fail to receive one.”
Over the last several years, voting rights groups have successfully forced other states that had been disregarding the NVRA to comply with the law. In Missouri and Ohio, voter registrations at public assistance agencies skyrocketed following the settlement of lawsuits in 2009. “Cases were recently settled in New Mexico and Indiana, and other cases are pending in Georgia and Louisiana,” according to the release.
“Public agency registration is essential because it reaches people who are less likely to register to vote through other means, including low-income residents, minorities, the elderly, and the disabled,” said Project Vote’s Nicole Zeitler, director of the Public Agency Voter Registration Program. “It’s important, it’s effective, and it’s the law.”