Today, Project Vote is pleased to release a new paper outlining proposed guidelines for incorporating automatic voter registration (AVR) within the existing requirements of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). You can download this new paper here.
AVR is generating considerable enthusiasm on the part of many voting rights advocates and policymakers. Using existing government databases to register eligible individuals to vote has the potential to significantly increase voter registration rates in America, which is almost unique among Western democracies in putting the onus of registration on the individual. Implemented properly, AVR also has the potential to streamline voter registration by reducing paper and minimizing the likelihood of human and data-entry error.
However, it is important to note that any AVR systems established must exist alongside existing requirements of the NVRA, not replace them. The NVRA sets forth specific voter registration requirements that state motor vehicle departments and public assistance agencies must follow, and state law may not conflict or supersede these requirements. It is paramount that AVR systems neither reduce services mandated by the NVRA, nor inadvertently remove any of the NVRA’s vital protections.
Automatic Voter Registration: Best Practices, by election counsel Niyati Shah, describes how AVR can and should be incorporated within NVRA procedures, to create a default presumption in favor of registering to vote. Under the process proposed in this paper, clients of motor vehicle departments and public assistance agencies will not have to take additional steps to become registered.
A crucial element of the proposed process is providing for a process of affirmation or attestation of eligibility, by which individuals may opt out of being registered if they do not meet the eligibility requirements. Obtaining such an attestation is required by the NVRA, and it provides a key line of defense against inadvertently registering ineligible voters (e.g. non-citizens or felons).
At Project Vote, we are excited about the growing interest in AVR at both the state and federal level. We hope this paper will be useful to advocates and policy makers alike as we pursue this promising reform within existing federal law.