Voter Registration at Public Assistance Agencies

Welfare agencies boost voters, By Richard Wolf, July 22, 2010, USA Today: “The recession that impoverished millions of Americans is producing a side effect: new voters. Lawsuits by voting rights groups in Missouri and Ohio have led hundreds of thousands of people to file voter registration applications at welfare agencies, as mandated by the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, or the ‘motor voter’ law. Cases pending in Indiana, New Mexico and other states, as well as new Justice Department guidelines, probably will boost those figures. Voting rights advocates say millions of low-income people could be registered this way. A U.S. Election Assistance Commission report in 2007-08 showed 21 states registered less than 1% of voters at welfare offices. Only Vermont, Tennessee and New York registered more than 4% that way…”