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Voter Registration Agencies
States are required to designate as voter registration agencies "all offices&that provide public assistance" [section 7(a)(2)(A)] and "all offices&that provide State-funded programs primarily engaged in providing services to people with disabilities" [Section 7(a)(2)(B)]. The Conference Committee that managed the differing House and Senate versions of the NVRA specified that by public assistance agencies, they meant to include Food Stamps, Medicaid, Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and what was then Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), but is now Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
Registration of Clients in Their Homes
If the agency provides service to a person with disabilities at his or her home, "the agency shall provide the [voter registration] services...at the person's home" [Section 7(a)(4)(B)].
Additional Voter Registration Agencies
States "shall designate other offices within the State as voter registration agencies" [Section 7(a)(3)(A)]. These offices can include libraries, schools, licensing bureaus such as marriage license bureaus or hunting and fishing license bureaus, and unemployment compensation offices. Congress left it to the states' discretion which offices would be designated as additional voter registration agencies, but made it clear in committee reports that states were to designate some additional offices as voter registration agencies.
Voter Registration Services
Offices designated as voter registration agencies must
- Distribute the federal mail-in voter registration application form or "the agency's own if it is equivalent" [Section 7(a)(6)(A)(ii)],
- Assist applicants with completing the application forms
- Accept and transmit the application.
Specifically, offices that provide public assistance or disability services must distribute the voter registration application with "each application for such services or assistance, and with each recertification, renewal or change of address form relating to such service or assistance" [Section 7(a)(6)(A)].
Required Voter Registration Question and Notices
In addition to a voter registration application form, the agency that provides services or public assistance must provide at each application for assistance, recertification or renewal, or change of address a form that includes:
- The question, "If you are not registered to vote where you live now, would you like to apply to register to vote here today?" [Section 7(a)(6)(B)(i)];
- The statement, "Applying to register or declining to register to vote will not affect the amount of assistance that you will be provided by this agency" [Section 7(a)(6)(B)(ii)];
- Boxes for the applicant to check whether he or she chooses to register or to decline to register, followed by the statement, "If you do not check either box, you will be considered to have decided not to register to vote at this time." [Section 7(a)(6)(B)(iii)];
- The statement, "If you would like help in filling out the voter registration application form, we will help you. The decision to seek or accept help is yours. You may fill out the application in private." [Section 7(a)(6)(B)(iv)]; and finally,
- The statement, "If you believe that someone has interfered with your right to register or to decline to register to vote, your right to privacy in deciding whether to register or in applying to register to vote, or your right to choose your own political party or other political preference, you may file a complaint with ___________," followed by the name, address and telephone number of the person to whom complaints can be directed [Section 7(a)(6)(B)(v)].
Agencies may elect to incorporate the voter registration question and accompanying statements in the application, recertification or renewal, and change of address forms or they may have a separate form - known as a declination form - that agencies include with each of the above forms.
Integrated Declination Form and Voter Registration Application
For those states that choose to integrate the declination form with a voter registration application rather than incorporate the voter registration question and required statements into each agency benefit form, the FEC cautions them to ensure that an individual voter registration application cannot be traced to its originating agency.
Prohibition on Influencing Client Selection
Employees may not make any statements to influence an applicant's political preference or party registration, discourage an applicant from voting, or imply that registering or not registering would have an effect on assistance [Section 7(a)(5)]. Section 12 specifies criminal penalties.
Transmittal Deadlines
Officials have 10 days from the date the application was signed to transmit the form to the appropriate election officials [Section 7(d)(1)]. If the close of registration for a federal election is within 5 days of the application's signing, officials have only 5 days to transmit the signed application [Section 7(d)(2)].
Confidentiality
Section 8 of the NVRA requires states to keep records for 2 years on the implementation of NVRA and make those records publicly accessible, except "to the extent that such records relate to a declination to register to vote or to the identity of a voter registration agency through which any particular voter is registered" [Section 8(i)(1)].
Preservation of Declinations
While the NVRA does not specifically require that declination forms be kept for the two-year period specified in Section 8(i)(1), separate federal laws regarding record preservation likely require such forms to be retained for 22 months. Further, the FEC, in their guide to implementing the NVRA, recommends that states preserve declination forms "to maintain an audit trail, to ensure evidence should allegations of wrongdoing arise, and for the benefit of the agencies themselves," one of which is to satisfy themselves of full
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