March 13, 2014
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Democracy Initiative—a coalition of more than 40 labor, civil rights, voting rights, environmental, and like-minded organizations committed to strengthening American democracy—called on the president to ensure that millions of Americans applying for benefits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are also provided their federally-guaranteed opportunity to register to vote.
In a letter to President Obama, the groups express concern that the application process for benefits through federally-facilitated exchanges (FFEs) currently violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), and urge the administration to take immediate steps to ensure compliance with this important federal law.
The letter states, “As staunch supporters of voting rights, we believe that it is critical for the ACA to meet these legal requirements now and offer voter registration to the millions of Americans who will be shopping for insurance on the exchanges in the coming months and years.”
Signatories to the letter include the Communication Workers of America, the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the National Education Association, Southwest Voter Registration Project, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the United Auto Workers, among others.
Because the health benefit exchanges provide public assistance within the states, including Medicaid, the Obama administration has acknowledged that FFEs must provide voter registration services. However, the current application process in the FFEs does not meet the NVRA’s requirements. As a consequence, several million Americans have already lost out on the opportunity to register to vote. Millions more will be denied this right if the administration does not take action in the coming weeks.
The NVRA—widely known as the “motor voter” law—was enacted 20 years ago with strong bipartisan support from Congress. It made voter registration more accessible by requiring convenient voter registration opportunities to be provided in certain instances when Americans interact with their government. For the last 20 years, states have offered voter registration services in tandem with driver’s license transactions, Medicaid, and other government programs. More than 140 million Americans have applied to register to vote through provisions of the NVRA.
In the letter to the White House, the members of the Democracy Initiative thank the President for making both health care reform and voting rights top priorities in his administration, and call for the necessary reforms to immediately bring the ACA application process into compliance with the NVRA.
###
The Democracy Initiative (DI) is a coalition of more than 40 civil rights, environmental, labor, and civic organizations formed to restore our democracy. Originally formed in 2012, the DI represents more than 30 million members nationwide.