July 9, 2009
CONTACT: Nicole Kovite, Project Vote, 202.546.4173 ext. 303
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Citing clear evidence that Indiana public
assistance agencies have violated their federally mandated responsibility to
offer tens of thousands of clients the opportunity to register to vote each
year, a coalition of voting rights groups filed suit today against officials in
Indiana for violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
The suit was filed on behalf of the Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the Indiana State Conference of the NAACP,
and Paris Alexander, an Indiana resident and Food Stamp Program client who was
not provided the opportunity to register to vote. The plaintiffs are
represented by lawyers from Project Vote, Dēmos, the Lawyers’ Committee for
Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), the NAACP, and the ACLU of
Indiana, and by the law firms of Miner, Barnhill & Galland and Schwartz,
Lichten, & Bright. Defendants include officials from Indiana’s Family and
Social Services Administration (FSSA), the co-directors of the Indiana Election
Division, and the members of the Indiana Election Commission.
The complaint alleges that Indiana public assistance
agencies have been virtually ignoring their federal obligations under the NVRA
to offer voter registration to all Indiana citizens who apply for public
assistance at FSSA offices, including applicants for Food Stamps, Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families, and Medicaid. Congress mandated that voter
registration be offered at public assistance agencies (along with the more
familiar “motor voter” requirement that registration be offered at motor
vehicle bureaus) to ensure that low-income citizens would have the same
opportunity for convenient voter registration as other residents.
The NVRA violations in Indiana are part of an ongoing
national problem involving a failure by many states to provide the voter
registration opportunities mandated by the statute. Today the same coalition of voting rights
groups is also filing suit against the State of New Mexico to ensure compliance
with the NVRA. Last month the groups settled their NVRA lawsuit against the
State of Missouri, a lawsuit against the State of Ohio is ongoing, and
pre-litigation letters have been sent notifying California, Colorado, and New
Jersey that lawsuits may be necessary if they do not bring their voter
registration programs into compliance. In 2008, investigations by the U.S.
Department of Justice forced both Arizona and Illinois to take steps to improve
NVRA compliance.
A U.S. Election Assistance Commission report to Congress on
the impact of the NVRA, released June 30th, confirms that poor
implementation of public agency registration is a widespread problem. In
2007-2008 public assistance agencies nationwide collected less than a million
voter registration applications, compared to 2.6 million collected in
1995-1996, the first two years the law was in effect. Numerous states report
assisting so few clients that their compliance with the NVRA is clearly in
doubt. Seven states failed to report any data regarding voter registration in
public assistance agencies, and several other states submitted incomplete or
problematic data, which voting rights groups say are indicative of compliance
problems.
According to Nicole Kovite, director of the Public Agency
Voter Registration Project for Project Vote, Indiana’s NVRA violations
contribute to the state having one of the worst registration rates for
low-income voters in the nation. In 2008 over 40 percent of low-income voters
in Indiana remained unregistered, representing almost 265,000 citizens from
households making less than $25,000 a year. “In recent years Indiana has passed
new laws making it harder for voters to participate in the democratic process,”
said Kovite. “Now we have clear evidence that Indiana has also been flouting a
federal voting rights law that makes participation easier for low-income
Indiana voters.
“Violations of federal law threatening Indiana voters’ opportunity
to register to vote will not be tolerated,” said Jon Greenbaum, Legal Director
for the Lawyers’ Committee. “Indiana officials failed to heed our initial call
to rectify compliance issues at state public assistance agencies and we intend
to protect voters’ rights to the fullest extent of the law.”
In 1995-1996, the first two years the NVRA was implemented,
Indiana registered over 80,000 people through public assistance agencies. By
the 2007-2008 election cycle, however, registrations through public assistance
agencies in Indiana had fallen to only 2,519; despite over 600,000 people per
month participating in the Indiana Food Stamp Program alone—just one of the
programs covered by the NVRA—voter registration applications collected through
all FSSA agencies only averaged approximately 100 per month.
Investigations and surveys cited in the complaint confirm
Indiana’s widespread noncompliance. A November 2008 Project Vote survey of a
number of FSSA offices and clients in Marion and Lake counties found that none
of the offices were offering voter registration applications to their clients,
and very few even had voter registration forms on their premises. None of the
benefits applications collected during the investigation included the required
registration materials, and none of the clients interviewed said they had been
offered an opportunity to register to vote. Many FSSA staffers were completely
unaware of their responsibilities under the NVRA.
“It has been five months since we notified Indiana of the
need to remedy these serious voting rights violations,” said Brenda Wright,
Director of the Democracy Program at Dēmos. “We urged the state to correct the
problem without litigation, but the state’s inaction has left us with no choice
but to file suit. Indiana should bring its practices into compliance with the
law without further delay.”
Plaintiffs ACORN and the NAACP both work in Indiana to
protect the civil rights of Indiana residents, particularly people of color,
and to promote their participation in the democratic process. “Voter registration
should primarily be the responsibility of the government,” said Jeff Ordower,
ACORN’s Midwest regional director. “Indiana’s noncompliance has not only
resulted in thousands of low-income and minority Indiana citizens being denied
the opportunity to register to vote, it has also forced ACORN and other groups
to expend considerable effort and resources to take up the slack.”
“By failing to offer voter registration at FSSA offices,
Indiana state officials are making it more difficult for low-income and
minority citizens to register to vote,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, President
and CEO of the NAACP. “The State of
Indiana must fulfill its obligations under the NVRA. True democracy requires the participation of
all citizens regardless of economic status or race.”
“This litigation will expand voter registration
opportunities and encourage more citizens to participate in the democratic
process,” added Angela Ciccolo, Interim General Counsel for the NAACP. “We
salute our Indiana State Conference for playing such a vital role in this
important work.”
The voting rights groups estimate that proper implementation
nationwide of the NVRA’s public assistance provisions could result in 2-3
million additional registrations per year. For example, following a court order
in the groups’ Missouri lawsuit, voter registration applications submitted at
the state’s public assistance offices skyrocketed from fewer than 8,000 a year
to more than 100,000 in just eight months.
To view the complaint, and for more information on the NVRA
and voting rights, visit www.projectvote.org;www.demos.org; or www.lawyerscommittee.org.
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