In response to this post last week featuring the report from Demos on the increase in low-income voter registration in Ohio — in which I wondered if other states were seeing similar progress — the folks at Demos tweeted me:
Demos_Org hi mitchell, ty for highlight Ohio report, see the following in response to your ?: http://bit.ly/bpWx6r
which links to this Ideas&Action blog post with more good news on low-income voter registration in other states.
Missouri experienced a roughly 1,600 percent increase in low-income citizen applications for voter registration at the state’s Department of Social Services, with 246,020 applications processed in the twenty-two months following a successful court action to improve compliance.
In North Carolina, well over 100,000 low-income citizens applied to register to vote through the state’s public assistance agencies since the State Board of Elections worked cooperatively with Demos and others to improve NVRA compliance, a six-fold increase over the state’s previous performance.
The number of voter registration applications from Virginia’s public assistance agencies increased five-fold after Demos worked cooperatively with state officials to improve their procedures.
The increase in low-income voter registration in these states is the direct result of states successfully implementing Department of Justice guidelines requiring public assistance offices to also provide voter registration forms and processing services.
If officials in other states follow the DOJ guidance and learn the lessons of these states, huge numbers of new or previously-missed voters can participate in the coming election season.
The author is the winner of the 2010 CREDO Mobile/Netroots Nation award for Blog Activist of the Year
Tags: voter registration
Increasing access to voter registration opportunities for low-income citizens is working in Ohio, according to a new report from the advocacy group Demos.
Over 100,000 low-income Ohio citizens have already submitted voter registration applications as a result of steps the state has taken to comply with Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993–specifically its requirement that states’ public assistance offices offer voter registration opportunities and related services–according to a new report published this week by Demos.
Since passage of the NVRA, many states have neglected Section 7 of the Act, which requires that states public assistance agencies offer voter registration in conjunction with benefits applications, renewals and changes of address. Just before Thanksgiving of this past year, Ohio settled a three-year old lawsuit brought by Demos and its partners at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Project Vote, with help from pro bono law firm Dechert LLP, on behalf of low-income Ohio citizens who had not received the required voter registration services.
“Ohio’s experience–the subject of this report–offers valuable lessons both for advocates and for state officials seeking to encourage voter registration and to achieve the full promise of the NVRA,” said report author Lisa Danetz.
[...]
Ohio’s initial success is evident at the individual and county level as well, with larger county DJFS offices now submitting registration applications for significant numbers of clients every month, several counties that had not registered a single voter in the 2003-2004 reporting period now collecting over 100 registration applications each month, and smaller counties registering a significant percentage of their clients.
Ms. Danetz stated, “The results in Ohio show that, with proper implementation of the public agency provisions of the NVRA, hundreds of thousands or even millions of eligible low-income citizens throughout the country can be added to the ranks of registered voters, allowing increased political participation and moving closer to a fully inclusive and representative democracy.”
I wonder how well other states are doing?
Tags: Ohio, voter registration
by Kim Andrews—Pennsylvania
Our office recently received a box of voter registration cards, so on my way out to turf I grabbed a handful to put keep in my bag. After one of my first contacts I realized the importance of even having the cards with me.
I was talking about the health care crisis to one woman who signed up as a member and she began talking about the importance of the upcoming presidential elections. She mentioned how she still had not even registered to vote even though she intended to. I pulled out a registration card and handed it to her. She expressed her appreciation and mentioned that because she works so much she was not sure when or even where to pick up the card and she did not have internet access to register online. I was happy to have the cards on me and to be able to leave a great impression on one of our new members.
Tags: Health Care, membership, voter registration
