Which Factors Affect Who Is Eligible To Register To Vote In The Us

February 09, 2020 HUMAN RIGHTS

Voter Registration in Today'southward Republic: Barriers and Opportunities

The requirement of registering to vote before being able to cast a ballot has been integral to how our democracy functions and provides both barriers — The requirement of registering to vote earlier being able to cast a election has been integral to how our democracy functions and provides both barriers

Ofttimes when we hear almost voting, the public discussion focuses on Election Day (or days in the case of early on and absentee voting). However, an important component of the voting process occurs before the actual act of voting—voter registration. The requirement of registering to vote earlier being able to cast a ballot has been integral to how our commonwealth functions and provides both barriers and opportunities to voter participation, especially for communities of color. For example, simply slightly over half of eligible Asian Americans and Latinos were registered to vote in the last two federal elections, with a persistent disparity as compared to white voters of 15–twenty percentage less in voter registration and turnout.

Table i. Voter Participation Rates and Gaps of Those Eligible by Race and Ethnicity

November 2016 Election
	Percent Registered of Those Eligible	Gap in Voter Registration Rate (compared to White)	Percent Voted of Those Eligible	Gap in Voter Turnout Rate
White	73.ix%	North/A	65.3%	N/A
African American	69.four%	-4.5%	59.4%	-5.9%
Asian American	56.three%	-17.6%	49.0%	-xvi.iii%
Latino	57.3%	-16.half-dozen%	47.6%	-17.7%
November 2018 Election
White	71.0%	N/A	57.v%	N/A
African American	63.9%	-seven.1%	51.1%	-6.4%
Asian American	53.0%	-18.0%	40.6%	-16.9%
Latino	53.7%	-17.iii%	40.4%	-17.ane%

Source: Census Agency Current Population Surveys

But nosotros also know that one time registered, disparities amongst different racial and ethnic groups disappear generally (see Tabular array two). Once registered, people are more likely to take the next step and vote.

There has been growing attention on voter registration and the role it plays in our republic. On the one hand, voter registration has been increasingly nether attack as a way to erect barriers to voting and suppress the vote of certain communities. On the other hand, election reform efforts to increase admission to voter registration, in recognition of the fact that more than parity in voter turnout is achieved once registered, accept also been on the rise. This article volition provide an overview of both the attacks and opportunities that currently be with respect to voter registration, and provide thoughts on how to arroyo modernizing voter registration.

Table 2. Voter Participation Rates of Those Registered by Race and Ethnicity

	Per centum Voted of Registered in 2016	Gap in Voter Turnout Rate (compared to White) in 2016	Pct Voted of Registered in 2018	Gap in Voter Turnout Rate (compared to White) in 2018
White	88.iii%	N/A	fourscore.nine%	N/A
African American	85.7%	-ii.7%	79.ix%	-one.1%
Asian American	87.ii%	-i.2%	76.half dozen%	-4.iii%
Latino	83.1%	-v.3%	75.2%	-5.eight%

Source: Census Agency Electric current Population Surveys

Defending Against Attacks to Voter Registration

Diluting the National Voter Registration Act

The National Voter Registration Human action of 1993 (NVRA) is a federal law designed to reduce barriers to voter registration. The NVRA governs elements of voter registration in the U.s.a. and requires, among other provisions, that certain authorities agencies—including Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMVs), public assist agencies, and inability services offices—affirmatively provide voter registration services.

Authorities Agency Voter Registration

The NVRA requires that DMVs annals driver license holders simultaneously and without requiring duplicative information in their DMV and voter registration applications when individuals use for, renew, or submit a change of address for their driver's license. For those individuals who do not occasion DMVs, specifically the low-income or disability community, the NVRA requires that public assistance agencies and disability offices provide voter registration each time an individual applies for, renews, or submits a change of address in conjunction with their benefits.

Despite the clear requirements of the NVRA, states often seek to circumvent their voter registration obligations by failing to consistently provide voter registration or limiting voter registration during in-person transactions, fifty-fifty as interactions with government agencies increasingly take place online. A lawsuit in Georgia forced the land'due south public assistance agencies to provide voter registration during online transactions. Moreover, there is a pending lawsuit in Texas challenging the DMV's refusal to provide voter registration during online modify of address transactions.

Third-Party Voter Registration Drives

The NVRA also provides for a federal, mail-in voter registration form that is uniform across the country and which is bachelor in 14 languages. This facilitates third parties or community organizations in conducting voter registration drives. These community-based voter registration drives often assist traditionally under-represented segments of our electorate, including those who are limited-English proficient (LEP) and communities of colour, ordinarily in a nonpartisan manner.

Despite the articulate mandate of the NVRA, there have been attacks on tertiary-political party voter registration drives. For example, states restrict and burden voter registration drives by requiring those conducting voter registration, most of whom are volunteers, to be designated equally a "deputy voter registrar." In society to do so, states add additional requirements such as residency requirements and quotas on how many individuals from a single arrangement can become deputy voter registrars. In addition to these authoritative burdens, states further increase the burdens on tertiary-party voter registration drives by requiring submission of consummate voter registrations in person (rather than postal service) in a relative tight timeframe.

Purging Voters

In addition to increasing voter registration, the NVRA also limits the circumstances in which states can remove individuals from the voter rolls in club to reduce the hazard that citizens eligible to vote will be removed from the rolls. The NVRA states that "the name of a registrant may not be removed from the official listing of eligible voters except: (ane) if the registrant requests he or she be removed, (ii) in accord with state law regarding eligibility in cases of criminal convictions or mental incapacity, (3) where the registrant has died, or (4) where the registrant's residence has changed.

Only some states have begun to aggressively purge otherwise eligible voters from their voting rolls for a host of invalid reasons. For example, in Texas, the Secretary of State attempted to purge naturalized citizens from voter rolls because they had once indicated to the DMV that they were dark-green card holders or legal permanent residents; of grade, individuals routinely naturalize before needing to update their DMV records. And in Georgia, the Secretary of State attempted to purge voters from the rolls just considering their proper name did non exactly friction match other governmental records. But it is commonplace to accept typographical errors in data entry and, in particular, ethnic names often do not conform to the naming format of a given or kickoff name followed past a surname. These practices were only halted after civic engagement organizations filed multiple, successful lawsuits.

Documentary Proof of Citizenship Requirement for Voter Registration

Citizenship is a prerequisite to voting in federal elections. In order to register, individuals must sign a statement nether penalization of perjury affirming that they are citizens and that they come across all voter eligibility requirements. While this has been the accustomed practice for decades and by courts, beginning in 2004, a handful of states have decided to go further and crave voters to provide documentary proof of their citizenship, such as nascency certificates, naturalization cards, or Native American tribal documents. Arizona was the kickoff state in 2004 to impose such a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement, with Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia post-obit adapt in the following decade.

Documentary proof of citizenship requirements unduly touch students, the elderly, people with disabilities, depression-income individuals, the homeless, naturalized citizens, and communities of colour. Adequate documents to prove citizenship for this requirement mostly include whatever driver's or non-commuter'southward ID that includes a note that the person submitted proof of U.S. citizenship, a U.S. nascence certificate, a U.Due south. passport or U.S. naturalization documents, certain tribal IDs, and other rare documents. Obtaining requisite regime-issued proof of citizenship requires both the fourth dimension and cost of physically getting the documentation. Additionally, foreign-born persons will not have some of these documentary options available to them because of their identify of birth, and they also confront boosted fees to obtain a replacement Document of Naturalization, which currently requires $555 and takes around 10 to 13 months to procedure. Thus, these requirements place an unequal and undue brunt on those to the lowest degree likely to participate in our republic.

Boosted Requirements for Naturalized Citizens

While not as prevalent, at that place have been states that have treated their naturalized citizens as 2nd-class citizens by placing additional requirements upon them in order to vote. For example, in Louisiana, a law on the books for almost 150 years required only naturalized citizens to submit proof of citizenship in person at their local registrar's office after submitting their voter registration form. For groups on the footing, there was a noticeable uptick in strict enforcement of this law around 2012. This resulted in more naturalized citizens failing to annals when they learned nigh the cumbersome procedure. Later a lawsuit was filed challenging this constabulary, Louisiana'southward governor signed a bill that repealed the discriminatory requirement in 2016. More recently, in Mississippi, a lawsuit was filed in November 2019 challenging state law that imposes a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration on only naturalized citizens.

Increasing Access for All

Efforts at the state level have not all been negative—there has likewise been an increment in efforts to laissez passer proactive, affirmative ballot reform that would increase access to voter registration and voting for all voters. A better agreement about why people choose non to vote is needed in lodge to best assess which proactive election reform would meliorate the voter registration process. An analysis of the reasons why people choose not to vote shows that some of the main reasons for not voting are focused on lack of interest (either in voting itself or the specific candidates or campaigns) or forgetting to vote. However, the assay farther shows that around half of those choosing not to vote do so for ane of the post-obit lack-of- access reasons: illness or disability; out of town; too busy; conflicting schedule; transportation problems; registration bug; or inconvenient polling place (come across Table 3). The post-obit proactive election study policies can address many of these reasons and ensure that those who have an interest in voting, but who have some type of access outcome, can still cast a meaningful ballot in future elections.

Table 3. Not Voting Because of Lack of Access by Race and Ethnicity

	Pct Non Voted Because of Access Issues in 2016	Percent Not Voted Because of Access Issues in 2018
White	44.1%	58.4%
African American	43.0%	58.5%
Asian American	38.9%	58.1%
Latino	40.3%	57.2%

Source: Demography Bureau Current Population Surveys

Aforementioned Day Registration (SDR)

In virtually states, voters must register past a specified deadline prior to Election 24-hour interval, usually falling between eight and thirty days before the ballot, in social club to vote on Election Day. This tin can cause defoliation for voters and creates a barrier for those who miss the borderline to annals but get interested in voting between the deadline and Election Solar day. SDR, also known as Election Day Registration, allows any qualified resident of the state to both annals to vote and cast a ballot on that same twenty-four hours. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), every bit of June 30, 2019, a total of 21 states plus the District of Columbia have enacted SDR, including New Mexico and Nevada, which enacted SDR in 2019.

Online Voter Registration (OVR)

OVR allows ane to annals to vote electronically over the internet and is a complement to the traditional mail-in procedure. Online voter registration simply expands the ways in which people can annals and makes voter registration more convenient and cost-effective. Fifty-fifty with the ongoing digital divide facing communities of colour, online voter registration systems that are accessible on mobile devices help to span that gap and ensure communities that tend to be the virtually marginalized tin can accept advantage of OVR.

Additionally, OVR has been shown to event in significant cost savings to processing registration in jurisdictions where implemented. For instance, Arizona went from per-registration costs of 83 cents per paper registration to 3 cents per online registration. As of October 2019, NCSL reports that a total of 37 states plus the District of Columbia offering online registration, as well as Oklahoma, which is currently phasing in implementation of OVR. Finally, beyond the convenience gene of being able to annals or update registration information online, OVR provides additional opportunities to provide language help to voters through translated online interfaces.

Proceed with Caution—Automatic Voter Registration (AVR)

The current most popular proactive election reform policy is AVR, where the authorities is responsible for "automatically" registering voters rather than waiting for the individual to submit a voter registration form. While in that location is value in placing the responsibility on the government to ensure that all eligible citizens are registered to vote rather than on the private, those considering AVR efforts must approach it cautiously in order to avoid any unintended harm, especially for those who are ineligible merely are accidentally registered.

Having an ill-considered system without input from stakeholders to register voters may issue in adventitious registration of non-citizens where the non-citizens have non actually represented themselves as U.S. citizens. Whether a not-citizen national with a passport or one who is accidentally added due to clerical mistakes past government officials, non-citizens erroneously registered through AVR can face serious clearing consequences, such as deportation or condign ineligible to naturalize. Under immigration law, making a faux claim to U.Southward. citizenship is a federal felony regardless of noesis or intent. Additionally, not-citizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections, where liability is triggered if a person does the targeted act consciously, regardless of intent or understanding of the illegality of the act.

At that place are two full general approaches to AVR—a organization where existing databases, such as driver license databases, are used to automatically register voters through the use of a mailer for potential opt-outs or a system that uses an opt-out selection during transactions with relevant agencies. Because these databases were not designed with this purpose in mind and where the quality of data is likely inconsistent and poor across these dissimilar databases, specially with respect to citizenship and naturalization data, the more than prudent method for AVR would permit for automatic voter registration where a person is offered the opportunity to opt out in-transaction with the relevant agency. Moreover, often systems using a back-cease opt out of voter registration supercede front-end voter registration altogether; this would be a violation of the NVRA (discussed in a higher place), and the land law implementing a dorsum-end system would be subject area to federal preemption.

Any AVR effort at a local or federal level should focus on an in-transaction, front-end opt-out system. Additionally, any bill must offer protections in place for anyone who is ineligible to vote but who is registered through the AVR procedure as well as those who decided to vote on reliance of that registration. Finally, any local or federal AVR attempt must incorporate the importance of provisions for public educational activity to complement an AVR organisation.

The near parity achieved in voter turnout between voters of color and white voters is due in large office to the extensive engagement of Get Out the Vote (GOTV) and voter mobilization campaigns. In the absence of a public education campaign, many of those automatically registered may not know why it is important to vote, where, when, and how to vote, or what rights they have at the polls. Thus, it is important to include a commitment to, likewise as funding for, public instruction that is conducted in a style that is culturally and linguistically advisable to address the needs of the virtually marginalized communities and encourages participation in our democracy.

Conclusion

Voter registration is an integral part of our democracy that can cause significant barriers to participation. Unfortunately, some are seeking to exploit the voter registration process to make voting fifty-fifty more hard for those least likely to engage by adding more requirements to voter registration or by recklessly removing potential voters from the voter rolls. These suppressive tactics are beingness challenged in court and are beingness dismantled in many cases. At the same fourth dimension, advocates on the basis are working to brand voting accessible for all by championing voter registration reform measures that will increment opportunities and methods to register to vote. And, once registered, all Americans vote at like rates. As further voter registration modernization efforts continue, we must seek ways to make voter registration more accessible but likewise safe for those who are not yet eligible to vote.

Terry Ao Minnis is the senior director of Census and Voting Programs for Advancing Justice at Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC). She was one of the fundamental leaders in campaigns on reauthorizing the Voting Rights Deed in 2006 and the 2010 and 2020 census and is currently engaged in addressing the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County 5. Holder.

Niyati Shah is the assistant director of Legal Advocacy AAJC. As such, she leads the litigation program and recently served equally one of the pb attorneys in Lupe v. Ross, a example challenging the addition of the citizenship question to the 2020 demography.