Schumer wants states sued over voter registration

The chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee pressed Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday to “pull out all the stops” and sue states that do not provide voter registration materials at public assistance agencies.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires state agencies to offer voter registration materials to people when they are distributing aid, such as food stamps and unemployment benefits. It was designed as a way to increase voter registration opportunities.

{mosads}But the compliance of nearly 20 states was brought into question last year by a senior Justice Department official, though the agency did not specify which states were being looked into.

“This law is supposed to simplify the voter registration process, but it has been complicated by the rogue behavior of a large batch of states,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a statement.

“The Bush administration essentially condoned this flouting of the law, but with new leadership at the Justice Department, we hope states will be made to meet their obligations. Attorney General Holder should pull out all the stops to ensure the law is followed.
If that means taking certain states to court, so be it.”

In the first two years of the enforcement of the law, which went into effect in 1995, it brought about more than 2.5 million new registrations. However, “lax enforcement of the law has led to a 79 percent reduction in the number of registrations at public assistance agencies since 1996,” Schumer wrote.

The compliance of states with the law was questioned in a letter last year from Keith B. Nelson, principal deputy assistant to former Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Since the letter was written – nine months ago – Schumer, who became chairman of the committee at the beginning of this year, has not been updated on the Justice Department’s investigation.

The letter stated that the agency is “actively investigating a number of jurisdictions which have admitted to low voter registration rates at state public assistance agencies.” The department has said that it does not want to jeopardize the investigation by releasing too many details to Congress.