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R45030 — Federal Role in Voter Registration: The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) and Subsequent Developments

Reports · published 2025-02-07 · v14 · Active · crsreports.congress.gov ↗

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Authors
Sarah J. Eckman
Report id
R45030
Summary

Historically, most aspects of election administration have been left to state and local governments, resulting in a variety of practices across jurisdictions with respect to voter registration. States can vary on a number of elements of the voter registration process, including whether or not to require voter registration; where or when voter registration occurs; and how voters may be removed from registration lists. The right of citizens to vote is presented in the U.S. Constitution in the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth Amendments. Beginning with the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1965, Congress has sometimes passed legislation requiring certain uniform practices for federal elections, intended to prevent any state policies that may result in the disenfranchisement of eligible voters. The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) was enacted in 1993 and set forth a number of voter registration requirements for states to follow regarding voter registration processes for federal elections. NVRA is commonly referred to as the motor-voter bill, as it required states to provide voter registration opportunities alongside services provided by departments of motor vehicles (DMVs), although NVRA required other state and local offices providing public services to provide voter registration opportunities as well. NVRA also created a federal mail-based voter registration form that all states are required to accept and created criteria for state voter registration forms. Certain procedures states must follow for performing voter registration list maintenance or removing voters from registration lists are also set forth in NVRA. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) provided guidance to state election officials and issued biennial reports to Congress on NVRA implementation and voter registration in each state until these roles were transferred to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in 2002. NVRA remains a fundamental component of federal voter registration policy and has not undergone many significant revisions since its enactment, though voter registration remains a subject of interest to Congress. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 enacted a number of election administration measures, several of which were based on recommendations from the FEC’s biennial NVRA reports, and affected federal voter registration. These included the computerization of state voter lists; grants to states for election technology upgrades; changes to the federal mail-based voter registration form; and the transfer of the FEC’s role in administering NVRA to the newly created EAC. More comprehensive information on HAVA can be found in CRS Report R46949, The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA): Overview and Ongoing Role in Election Administration Policy. More than 60 bills were introduced in the 118th Congress related to federal voter registration or NVRA, and similar numbers and types of voter registration proposals have been commonly introduced in other recent Congresses. This report generally addresses bills that were introduced in the 118th Congress, with a few examples introduced to date in the 119th Congress; this report will be updated as necessary. Some of these measures are narrow in scope, whereas others are more comprehensive electoral reforms. Many of these bills seek to expand the ways in which states must allow individuals to register to vote. This can include adding other public service agencies to the list of NVRA voter registration agencies, or requiring online voter registration, same-day voter registration, preregistration of teenagers not yet eligible to vote, or automatic voter registration. Some bills have also been introduced that would limit NVRA or certain federal government activities related to voter registration. A number of other bills reflect ongoing concerns about ensuring accuracy in voter registration records, which can involve verifying certain information about potential voters, creating technology standards for required statewide voter registration databases, or establishing additional processes for maintaining voter registration lists.

Bills cited (35)

Curated by CRS — every bill listed in this report's relatedMaterials. Edge type cited_in_report, gold confidence.

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