Research by two national voting rights groups, Project Vote and Demos, has shown that Missouri and other states are violating the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The law requires that states make voter registration available at places where people apply for or renew driver’s licenses or apply for public assistance.
In 1995-96, 143,135 residents in Missouri registered to vote at public assistance offices. Ten years later, that number was 15,568, an 89 percent decrease. Nationally, the numbers declined 79 percent in that same period.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now found that none of the 14 public assistance offices it visited offered voter registration forms as a routine policy. Five of the offices could not supply a single voter registration form at all. The states are disenfranchising the poor by simply ignoring the law.
