Tonight, President Barack Obama will deliver his last State of the Union address to Congress and the American people, unofficially marking the beginning of his final year in office.
Early word is that this speech will be as much about defining the President’s legacy as it will be about charting a new course forward. And there is no question that President Obama has a lot to be proud of.
But President Obama’s legacy is frustratingly incomplete. Tonight, I’m sure, we will hear a great deal about the success of the Affordable Care Act, and how this historic law has allowed millions of previously uninsured Americans to secure benefits for their families.
But we will not hear—I’m equally sure—about how “Obamacare” is shamefully violating federal voting rights law and failing American democracy.
Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA)—the “motor voter” law—every eligible American who applies for benefits under the ACA should also be provided with meaningful voter registration services. And that is not happening at federally-run Health Benefits Exchanges.
This is not a trivial omission: tens of millions of Americans have already missed out on the opportunity to register to vote due to these failures of compliance. In fact, the Obama Administration’s inaction on this issue has actually rolled back the significant progress the NVRA had made in reaching unregistered Americans. Medicaid offices successfully provided voter registration to their clients for more than 20 years, but now clients who apply for Medicaid through federal Health Exchanges are being left out of the process.
Neither is this is a tangential issue, but one that should be front and center in the president’s priorities. Every other cause the president will address tonight—gun control legislation, criminal justice reform, racial inequalities, economic progress, immigration policy—will be better served by ensuring that all eligible Americans are able to register to vote and make their voices heard.
The continued inaction on this issue is a terrible disappointment from a president who has fought for voting rights his entire career, and a frustrating stain on his proud legacy. The president knows better, and the American people deserve better.
That’s why Project Vote and our partners are leading the fight to force the Obama Administration to address this injustice and bring the federally-operated exchanges into compliance with the NVRA. And we have no intention of stopping. If action is not taken, one of President Obama’s legacies to his predecessor may be a costly federal lawsuit to force the Exchanges to do what they should have been doing all along.
So as Barack Obama begins his final year in office, we honor his leadership, and we congratulate him on his accomplishments.
But we also remind him: “You still have work to do, Mister President.”