What is the National Voter Registration Act?

Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 in response to persistently low voter registration rates and wide variation in how different states handled registration. Before the Act, there was no federal floor: states designed their own registration systems, and many required visits to specific government offices during business hours -- a barrier that fell disproportionately on low-income and working voters. Research at the time showed that registered voters turned out at high rates, so expanding access to registration became the primary legislative strategy for increasing overall participation. President Bill Clinton signed the Act on May 20, 1993 (Pub. L. 103-31). Most of its provisions took effect January 1, 1995.

The NVRA created three primary channels through which eligible citizens must be offered the opportunity to register or update their registration. The first -- and the one responsible for the Act's 'Motor Voter' nickname -- requires state motor vehicle authorities to offer voter registration to anyone who applies for a new driver's license or renews an existing one (52 U.S.C. Section 20504). An address change at the DMV is automatically forwarded to election officials unless the applicant declines. The second channel requires states to offer voter registration at public assistance agencies -- offices that administer programs such as food assistance, Medicaid, and services for people with disabilities (52 U.S.C. Section 20505). The third channel requires states to accept mail-in voter registration applications completed on a standardized national form (52 U.S.C. Section 20503); since the Help America Vote Act of 2002, that form is maintained by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

The NVRA also governs voter roll maintenance. Under 52 U.S.C. Section 20507, states must conduct a general program of list maintenance using change-of-address information from the U.S. Postal Service to identify voters who may have moved. Critically, the Act prohibits removing a voter from the rolls solely on the basis that they have not voted. A state may send a confirmation notice to a voter who appears to have moved; if that voter neither responds to the notice nor votes in two successive federal general elections after the notice is sent, the state may then remove them from the rolls. States may also remove voters who have died (using death records), who request their own removal, or who are confirmed to have moved out of the jurisdiction through their own communication with election officials.

The NVRA applies to federal elections -- including the 2028 presidential election -- in every state that requires advance voter registration. Two categories of states are exempt: states that have no voter registration requirement at all (North Dakota is currently the only such state), and states that had, on the day of the NVRA's enactment, procedures allowing any eligible citizen to register and vote at the polling place on Election Day. In states covered by the NVRA, the DMV voter registration offer is the most widely encountered registration opportunity in daily life: every eligible citizen who visits a covered state's DMV to obtain or renew a license is offered the chance to register or update their registration at the same time.