EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This document is a report to the United States Congress on the impact of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) on the administration of elections for federal office during the preceding two-year period, 1997 through 1998.
This third report is based on survey results from 43 States and the District of Columbia. Six (6) States are not included because they are exempt from the provisions of the Act. Nevada figures are not included because that State failed to respond to the 1999 FEC survey questionnaire.
General
States reported a total of 140,946,508 registered voters nationwide for 1998, amounting to 70.15% of the Voting Age Population (VAP). This is the highest percentage of voter registration in a Congressional election since 1970. The report also notes that the number of Americans actually voting in 1998 declined by over 2.38 percentage points from 1994.
According to the highlights of the report, which covers the second two years in which the new law was in effect, during 1997 and 1998:
There were, in total, 35,372,213 registration applications or transactions processed nationwide.
Nearly half, or 17,613,211represented new registrations (i.e., registrations that were new to the local jurisdiction and registrations across jurisdictional lines).
There was a 6.46% rate of duplicates.
The remaining 43.74% of the total transactions, or about 15,473,031 were changes of name and address.
A total of 9,063,326 names were deleted from the registration lists under the new lists verification procedures of the law, while another 14,640,557 registrants were declared "inactive" and will be removed after 2000 if they fail to respond by or vote in that election.
In summary, the report finds that active voter registration in States covered by the NVRA rose in 1998 by 3.72 percentage points -- or some 7,100,000 people -- over 1994, the previous comparable election.
Highlights of this Report
Mail Registration
The mail registration provisions of the NVRA caused relatively few problems for the States and accounted for nearly one quarter of all voter registration applications from 1997 through 1998. States reported few problems with mail registration beyond the routine ones of incomplete, illegible, or ineligible applications.
Motor Voter
As was the case in our last report, the motor vehicle provisions of the NVRA posed little problem for the majority of States. Motor vehicle agencies again yielded the highest volume of registration applications among the various agencies mandated by the NVRA, accounting for 42.9% (15,175,653) of the total number of voter registration applications in the United States during 1997 and 1998.
Agency Registration
Voter registration activity by agencies mandated in Section 7 of the NVRA accounted for 8.22% (2,909,569) of voter registration applications during this reporting period. Public assistance agencies accounted for 4.37% (1,546,671) of this figure, State designated agencies tallied 3.09% (1,092,526) of the total, disability services agencies brought in an additional .70% (247,764) registration applications, and armed services recruitment offices accounted for the remaining .06% (22,608).
List Maintenance
Numerous States indicated that they had made adjustments to their procedures after 1996 in order to better their list maintenance programs. States reported several successes and fewer problems in maintaining accurate voter registration lists during 1997-1998, compared to 1995-1996. (For example, States with statewide voter registration databases reported how helpful they were in maintaining accurate voter registries.) Of the problems reported concerning list maintenance, most involved difficulties related to postal service and the high cost (time and money) of administering the program. Most of the recommendations reported by the States were in the nature of technical or administrative changes that could be implemented without changing federal law. A few States made recommendations that would require Congressional action.
Fail-safe Provisions
A number of States reported making changes to their procedures after 1996 in order to improve the administration of fail-safe voting. Several reported successes experienced in the last election cycle, while a very small number reported problems with different aspects of the process. A couple of States made recommendations to address problems they had in their own State.
Recommendations
The most significant problems reported by the States continue to group into three broad categories. Accordingly, the FEC reiterates the three core recommendations offered in the last report for improving the implementation of the NVRA:
that States which do not require all or part of the applicant’s social security number voluntarily (1) amend their election codes to require only the last four digits from all new voter registration applicants, and (2) endeavor to obtain that same item of information from all current registered voters;
that States which have not yet done so voluntarily (1) develop and implement a statewide computerized voter registration database; (2) ensure that all local registration offices are computerized; and (3) link their statewide computerized system, where feasible, with the computerized systems of the collateral public agencies relevant to the NVRA (motor vehicle offices, public assistance offices, etc.); and
that the U.S. Postal Service (1) create a new class of mail for "official election material" that encompasses all mail items requisite to the NVRA and provide the most favorable reduced rates affordable for the first class treatment of such mailings; and (2) provide space in their postal lobbies free of charge to State and local election officials for voter registration material.
The rationale for each of these recommendations is provided in Section 6 of the report.
(The full report may be obtained by calling the FEC's Office of Election Administration at 1-800-424-9530, Option #4)
