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Voter Registration will be offered at MVD Offices following
settlement
of lawsuit by coalition of voting rights groups
JULY 7, 2010
ALBUQUERQUE, NM -- Tens of thousands of New Mexico residents
who visit state motor vehicle offices will be able to register to vote or
update their voter registration information, thanks to a settlement agreement
reached last week in a lawsuit to bring the state’s Motor Vehicle Division into
compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993. The
agreement resolves a lawsuit brought against state officials by voting rights
groups Project Vote, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Dēmos,
as well as by the law firms of Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg & Ives, DLA
Piper LLP (US), and Advocates for Justice and Reform Now, PC.
Filed in July 2009, the lawsuit charged that New Mexico was
failing to comply with the NVRA, a federal civil rights law that requires motor
vehicle offices and public assistance agencies to offer voter registration
services to their clients. Defendants named in the suit include New Mexico’s
Secretary of State, Mary Herrera, and officials from the New Mexico Motor Vehicle
Division (MVD), the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, and the New
Mexico Human Services Department.
“The NVRA was enacted to ensure that all citizens have an
equal opportunity to register to vote,” said Nicole Kovite, director of the Public
Agency Voter Registration Project at Project Vote. “By ignoring this vital law,
New Mexico was denying this right to thousands of its residents every year.”
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Reports and Analysis
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Project Vote is pleased to release a new research memo, Election Legislation 2010: Threats and Opportunities
Assessment. Project Vote's Communications Manager Erin
Ferns has been closely watching all 45 states that are in
session in 2010, and monitoring nearly 1,000 election bills
related to such important issues as voter ID and proof-of-citizenship
requirements, felon disenfranchisement laws, youth voting, Election Day
registration, provisional voting, online registration, NVRA agency
registration, and other election administration issues.
In this comprehensive new memo Ferns discusses the
potential dangers or gains represented by over 30 bills that have been
enacted or proposed in 22 states, and assesses the viability of pending
bills based on discussions with state-based advocates, recent media
coverage, and the composition of the legislature. You can
download this new memo here.
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As part of our continuing
effort to monitor and improve election administration issues in individual
states, today Project Vote is pleased to release a detailed new memo, Voting
in Virginia: How the System Works and How it Can Be Improved, by Dan
Charlton. This comprehensive
memorandum takes a look at how well election policies and procedures in the
Commonwealth of Virginia do—and don’t—work to increase participation in the
electoral process, and provides recommendations for how Virginia can
further remove barriers and increase access to voter registration and voting. Download this new memo here. |
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WASHINGTON, DC - Today the
Sierra Club, America's oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots
environmental organization, and Voting for America, an affiliate of the
voting rights nonprofit Project Vote, announced a new nonpartisan
initiative to help over 50,000 students of community and four-year
colleges in seven states register to vote for the 2010 election.
This summer and fall, Sierra
Club staff and volunteers will conduct nonpartisan voter registration
and mobilization drives on college campuses in Colorado, Minnesota,
Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas in order to gather over
50,000 voter registration applications from younger Americans.
"We know that Sierra Club's
core environmental and energy issues motivate young people," said Cathy
Duvall, Sierra Club Political and Public Advocacy Director. "We're eager
to work with Voting for America and build on our track record of
successful youth organizing to turn out young voters on Election Day."
Partnering with the Sierra
Club on the initiative is Voting for America, a new affiliate of Project
Vote that draws on its extensive expertise. "Project Vote has over 15
years experience in conducting large-scale voter registration drives,"
says Michael Slater, executive director of the organization. "In 2010
we've created Voting for America as a means of making the systems,
strategies, and tools we've developed available to other organizations."
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