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Massachusetts Citizen and Community Groups Sue Commonwealth for Failing to Provide Voter Registration Opportunities |
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Boston, MA – Citing clear evidence that the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) have violated their federally-mandated responsibilities to offer tens of thousands of public assistance clients opportunities to register to vote, a Massachusetts citizen and two community groups filed suit today for violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
Congress passed the NVRA to boost democratic participation by ensuring that all eligible citizens have ample opportunities to register to vote. Section 7 of the law requires state agencies that provide public assistance, including those that administer federal assistance programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, TANF, and WIC, to assist their applicants and clients in registering to vote.
Attorneys filed today’s suit on behalf of Bethzaida Delgado, NAACP New England Area Conference (NAACP-NEAC), and New England United for Justice (NEU4J). Ms. Delgado is a DTA client who is eligible to vote but was not offered the opportunity to register in her interactions with DTA offices over several years. The NAACP, the oldest, largest and most effective civil rights advocacy organization in the country, and NEU4J, a community organization, help low-income Massachusetts citizens register to vote. They seek concrete changes in DTA practices and procedures that will make voter registration available to every eligible public assistance agency applicant and client in the Commonwealth, as required by the NVRA.
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Federal Judge Rules that Louisiana Must Offer Voter Registration to Public Agency Clients |
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May 4, 2012
(New Orleans, LA) – Yesterday, voting rights advocates won an important legal victory that will ensure that Louisiana’s public assistance agency clients—the state’s poorest and most marginalized residents—will be offered an opportunity to register to vote.
In a forceful decision, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP that Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) requires that all public assistance clients must be provided with a voter registration application whether they seek benefits in person or by the internet, telephone and mail. Louisiana argued that its public assistance agencies were only required to offer voter registration to those clients who appeared in person.
“The vast majority of Louisiana’s public assistance clients never step foot in a state office, and failing to offer them a chance to register to vote violates federal law,” said Dale Ho, assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), who argued on behalf of the Plaintiffs at a hearing held on April 20. “Louisiana’s refusal to enforce the NVRA risks denying tens of thousands of our poorest citizens a clear path to voter registration.”
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Voting Rights Organizations Begin Litigation to Enforce National Voter Registration Act in PA |
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April 27, 2012
New York - Attorneys from Demos, Project Vote, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law sent a pre-litigation notice letter on Monday to the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth charging that the state is failing to provide low-income residents with a legally-mandated opportunity to register to vote. The groups demand that the secretary immediately act to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) or face litigation.
The letter, sent on behalf of the Black Political Empowerment Project, was also forwarded to Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare and Department of Health officials.
Section 7 of the NVRA requires state public assistance agencies to provide voter registration services to their clients. According to U.S. Election Assistance Commission data, the number of voter registration applications submitted at Pennsylvania public assistance offices decreased by 93% in recent years, from 59,462 in 1995-1996 to just 4,179 in 2009-2010. This drop in voter registrations is particularly significant given that the number of initial food stamp applications in Pennsylvania during the same time frame nearly doubled.
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