January 24, 2013
Public Agency Clients Must Be Offered an Opportunity to Register to Vote
 NEW ORLEANS, LA – On January 23, voting rights advocates won a major legal victory on behalf of Louisiana’s public assistance agency clients, the state’s most vulnerable and most marginalized residents.
In a 36-page ruling, following a trial in October 2012 in the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana, Judge Jane Triche Milazzo found that the state of Louisiana violated federal law by failing to offer an opportunity to register to vote to all applicants and recipients of food stamps, TANF, Medicaid, and WIC. The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requires that voter registration be offered to all such individuals, whether they seek benefits in person, or by the internet, telephone, or mail.
“The NVRA’s purpose is to expand voter registration and encourage participation in our great democracy,” said Sarah Brannon, director of the Public Agency Voter Registration Program at Project Vote. “The state of Louisiana spent over two years fighting compliance with the NVRA. Thankfully their efforts were not successful, because the court recognized that a meaningful opportunity to register to vote must be provided to low-income citizens.”
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November 16, 2012
WASHINGTON -- Yesterday, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) and U.S. Representative George Miller (D-Calif.) both introduced federal legislation designed to address the delays and problems millions of Americans endured at the polls on Election Day. Today, Project Vote Executive Director Michael Slater issued the following statement in response:
“On Election Day, voters in Florida, Virginia, and other states waited as long as nine hours to cast a ballot. Others voters were turned away or forced to vote provisional ballots because of registration mistakes, poll worker errors, or other unnecessary obstacles to voting. On Election Night, newly reelected President Obama said, ‘We have to fix that.’
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November 7, 2012
WASHINGTON -- Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, released the following statement:
“In his victory speech in Chicago last night, President Obama thanked ‘every American who participated in this election,’ and appropriately so. Almost 120 million Americans exercised their right to vote, reaffirming again the power of our democracy.
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