August 15, 2014
Today, Project Vote is pleased to release the latest policy paper in our Issues in Election Administration series, Voter Registration Transparency.
We hear a lot about government transparency in policy debates these days, but very rarely in the context of voter registration. Project Vote hopes to change that. Voter registration transparency is essential for protecting the rights of voters and ensuring a fair and just democratic system.
History demonstrates that election officials do not always comply with voter registration laws and put all eligible applicants on the voter rolls. We also find that voters are sometimes removed from the rolls through opaque and error-ridden procedures. Fair access to records is vital to ensuring that states are not using arbitrary or politically-motivated criteria for rejecting applicants or purging voters in secret.
This is why the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requires public disclosure of voter registration activities: to encourage accountability, to help identify and stop inaccurate voter list maintenance programs, and to educate voters on how to complete applications and remain on the rolls.
Transparency under the NVRA is a relatively new issue facing the courts. In recent years, however, Project Vote and other organizations have filed litigation to ensure that voter registration records and list maintenance procedures are available for inspection. In 2012, Project Vote and our allies won a precedent-setting victory in Virginia to ensure access to rejected voter registration applications.
In this new policy brief, Project Vote Election Counsel Michelle Kanter Cohen addresses the importance of transparency in the voter registration and list maintenance processes, discusses current law and litigation, and reviews some best practices for making voter registration information available to the public.