Today, attorneys from Project Vote, Demos, the ACLU Foundation of San Diego, and the law firm of Morrison & Foerster put the State of California on notice for violating the “motor voter” law.
The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 requires states to provide voter registration services through DMVs, a convenience that most of the country now takes for granted. However, investigations have revealed that California Department of Motor Vehicles procedures violate both the spirit and the letter of the NVRA, making it unnecessarily difficult for DMV clients to register or update their registrations.
This is of particular concern since California—the largest state in the nation—has one of the lowest rates of voter registration, especially among citizens of color. By violating or ignoring the requirements of the NVRA, California is missing the opportunity to register millions of eligible, unregistered voters.
Today’s pre-litigation notice letter was sent on behalf of the League of Women Voters of CA, California Common Cause, ACCE Institute, NCLR, and several individual California citizens. The individual plaintiffs include Shelley Small, a 62-year-old woman who was left off the rolls in 2014 after the DMV failed to properly update her registration.
“I am a U.S. citizen. I am 62 years old. I have not missed voting in an election for 43 years,” Ms. Small says. “Three months later, I am still deeply upset by the fact that I didn’t get to vote in the last election. This has to stop so that no one else is kept from voting.”
Project Vote and our allies hope to work with California to rectify this problem and ensure that all eligible citizens of the state are provided their federally-guaranteed opportunity to register to vote.
“We hope to work with California’s Secretary of State and Department of Motor Vehicles to make registering to vote easy, simple, and accessible for millions of Californians when they apply for a driver’s license,” said Sarah Brannon, director of Project Vote’s Government Agency Voter Registration Program, in a press release sent today. “It is time to upgrade voter registration in California to the 21st century and achieve the purpose of the NVRA.”