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WASHINGTON — Voting rights groups are calling on President Barack Obama’s administration to provide better voter registration opportunities to Americans signing up for health insurance in the more than 30 states where the federal government runs exchanges.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which is often referred to as the “motor voter” law, requires that states offer Americans the chance to apply to register to vote in federal elections when they apply for a driver’s license or visit public offices that provide public assistance or services to people with disabilities. The law says the public assistance agency must assist applicants in completing their voter registration application form, unless they say they don’t need help registering.
The three voting rights groups — Demos, the League of Women Voters and Project Vote — sent a letter to the administration on Wednesday arguing that the sign-up process for health insurance benefits under the ACA wasn’t complying with this voter registration law. They wrote that they were prepared to seek legal recourse if the government didn’t come under compliance with the legislation.
The letter points out that the number of voter registration applications submitted from Medicaid transactions in Mississippi was averaging about 900 per month before the ACA was implemented. After the state’s Medicaid enrollment process was taken over by the federal government, the average number of voter registrations dropped to roughly 150 per month.
“The Administration’s failure to provide voter registration services to persons who apply for health care through the [federally facilitated exchanges] is not merely a lost opportunity to increase the numbers of eligible persons who register and vote,” the groups wrote. “It is actually decreasing the numbers of voter registration applications submitted in states that rely on FFEs for ACA enrollment.”
