Also known as the motor voter laws, the National Voter Registration Act was created in order to expand access to voter registration in America. Passed in 1993, the document is large, with over ten sections, but we will only focus on four for now. If you are interested, click here for more information on the NVRA.
- Section 5 – States offer voter registration opportunities at State motor vehicle agencies
- Section 6 – States offer voter registration opportunities by mail-in application
- Section 7 – States offer voter registration at certain State and local offices
- Creates registration offices for disabled and for places to help
- Any place with state funding or state-run services
- Section 8 – Lays out procedure for voter registration
- States must cutoff all voter registration within 30 days of election
- States are required to allow the applicant to track their registration
- States can’t remove names because the person didn’t vote
- States can only remove names from registered voters list if the person:
- Is incarcerated, depending on the state law
- Is “mentally incapacitated”
- Moves to another state or has died
- If someone tries to register twice
Some other things to note about the document:
- Only 44 states are covered under this law, due to the fact that the other six states either didn’t have any voter registration requirements at the time, or that they allowed for election-day voter registration.
- Like the Voting Rights Act, more than 15 states, including the State of New York, have been brought to court over the NVRA as of June 2020; however, unlike the VRA, not one of these cases questioned any sections within the NVRA.
References:
“The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).” The United States Department of Justice, March 11, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/crt/national-voter-registration-act-1993-nvra.