Nevada’s state of voter registration is in a good news, bad news situation.
On the upside, low-income Nevadans will have federally required access to voter registration at public assistance agencies before the 2016 election, thanks to a settlement that was reached this month. The settlement concludes a 2012 lawsuit brought by Project Vote and partners.
The National Voter Registration Act, or “motor voter” law, was designed to make voter registration through public assistance agencies and motor vehicles offices a seamless and integrated process, ensuring the government takes responsibility for helping to register eligible citizens to vote.
Unfortunately, unlike public assistance agencies, the state’s motor vehicles offices are not offering voter registration to clients and Project Vote and partners are taking action. In a letter to Nevada’s secretary of state, we outline numerous widespread violations of the NVRA in the state’s DMVs. Most egregiously, state DMVs prevented citizens from voting in the 2014 elections because they failed to process the voter registration applications of those citizens before Election Day.
Learn more about Nevada’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act and our Government Agency Registration work here.
