Lawsuit Filed to Compel Missouri Public Assistance Agencies to Offer Voter
Registration Services
Leading National Advocacy Organizations File Suit to Enforce Federal National
Voter Registration Act
KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and St. Louis resident Dionne
O'Neal have filed a federal lawsuit today charging that the state of Missouri
has failed to provide voter registration services to clients of state public
assistance agencies, as required by the federal National Voter Registration
Act ("NVRA"). The NVRA is a federal law enacted in 1993 to ensure all
Americans have access to voter registration services.
The lawsuit alleges the Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) violated
the NVRA by failing to provide Ms. O'Neal and thousands of other low-income
Missourians with the opportunity to register to vote or change their voter
registration address during visits to the offices of DSS agencies.
In addition the plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction that would
require the DSS to come into compliance with the NVRA as soon as the court can
set a hearing date. "Our investigation revealed that DSS is failing to
provide hundreds, if not thousands, of low income residents the opportunity to
register to vote each day," says Brian Mellor, Senior Counsel for Project
Vote. "State officials have the legal responsibility to offer these citizens
the opportunity to participate in the democratic process and should be doing
so immediately."
The NVRA is commonly known as the "Motor Voter" law, due to its requirement
that states provide voter registration opportunities at motor vehicle
departments. The NVRA also requires that voter registration be offered at
public assistance agencies when citizens apply for benefits, recertify their
eligibility and change their address.
Low-income citizens are among the least likely to own a car and therefore are
less likely to register to vote at motor vehicle departments, making the
public assistance agency requirement crucial in reaching these citizens. Only
66 percent of adult Missouri citizens in households making less than $25,000 a
year were registered to vote in 2006 compared to 85 percent of those in
households making $100,000 or more.
In addition to the first-hand experience of Ms. O'Neal, who was never informed
of her right to register at DSS offices, the lawsuit is based on extensive
evidence of Missouri's noncompliance with the NVRA, including:
-- A report provided to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan in August 2007
documented a substantial decline in the number of voter registration
applications submitted by DSS from 1995 to 2006 despite an increase in
individuals receiving public assistance.
-- The report documented that during the same time period, the number of
voter registration applications did not decline nearly as much at DMV
offices.
-- An investigation conducted in Missouri's four largest counties
revealed a lack of compliance with the NVRA in eleven DSS offices.
Three
offices did not even have any voter registration applications
available
on site.
-- Interviews conducted outside public assistance agencies in the four
counties revealed that almost no individuals visiting the agencies
were
offered the opportunity to register as required by the NVRA.
"Missouri lags far behind other states in providing voter registration to
low-income citizens," said Brenda Wright, Legal Director of the Democracy
Program at Demos. "Missouri should follow the lead of states such as North
Carolina, Michigan, Iowa and Tennessee and bring its DSS offices into
compliance with the law."
In August 2007, Demos and Project Vote sent a formal notice letter to Deborah
Scott, Director of DSS, informing her of the state's violation of the NVRA.
Ms. Scott responded by denying that the state was out of compliance, and
declined to develop a plan to remedy the longstanding violations. Missouri
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan sent a letter to DSS detailing the evidence
from the Project Vote report that the Department was failing to comply with
the NVRA, and offered to assist the Department in doing so. However,
subsequent interviews outside three DSS offices revealed DSS' continued
failure to offer voter registration opportunities to clients.
"We put DSS on notice and it failed to act. Now we are asking the federal
court to order DSS into action," said Jon Greenbaum, director of the Voting
Rights Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
"If state officials can provide voter registration services at [motor vehicle
offices] they can follow the law and provide the same service at public
assistance agencies," commented Barbara Williams, Missouri ACORN member.
"Owning a car should not be a prerequisite to register to vote," Williams
added.
The lawsuit developed out of the work of the NVRA Implementation Project, an
effort by the non-profit organizations Project Vote, Demos: A Network for
Ideas & Action, and ACORN, to assess and improve the delivery of voter
registration services at states' public assistance agencies. In several
states, assistance provided by the Project has led to large increases in the
number of low-income citizens registering to vote at public assistance
agencies.
The plaintiffs are represented by Project Vote, Demos, the Lawyers' Committee
for Civil Rights Under Law, Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP and Kansas City attorney
Arthur A. Benson II.
To view the complaint, and for more information on the NVRA and voting rights,
visit www.projectvote.org, www.demos.org or www.lawyerscommittee.org.
ACORN is the nation's largest community organization of low- and
moderate-income families, with over 350,000 member families organized into
more than 1000 neighborhood chapters in 103 cities across the country.
(www.acorn.org).
Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action is a national, non-partisan public
policy, research and advocacy center. (www.demos.org).
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), a nonpartisan,
nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963. The principal mission of the
Lawyers' Committee is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice under
law, particularly in the areas of housing, community development, employment,
voting, education and environmental justice. (www.lawyerscommittee.org).
Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes
registration and voting to Americans from historically underrepresented
communities. (www.projectvote.org).
SOURCE Project Vote
Jeff Ordower of ACORN, +1-314-267-4664; or Tim Rusch of Demos,
+1-212-389-1407; or Stacie Miller of the Lawyers' Committee, +1-202-662-8317;
or Brian Mellor of Project Vote, +1-617-905-6410
