A growing body of state laws and regulations governing voter registration and the voting process create barriers to voting that discriminate against minorities, new citizens and the elderly. Nonprofits are challenging these new voter suppression tactics, including filing several lawsuits. These voter drives build off efforts that support election reform programs mandated by the Help America Vote Act of 2002, and these developments illustrate just how important nonprofit organizations are as vehicles of civic participation.

A coalition of organizations and individuals have filed suit to stop new voter registration rules in Ohio, charging they are designed to suppress the registration of minority and economically disadvantaged voters.

A Resource Center devoted to information on H.R. 1461, the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005, a bill originally intended to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which passed the House on Oct. 27. The bill now contains a provision that would disqualify nonprofits from receiving money from a new affordable housing fund if they have engaged in voter registration and other nonpartisan voter participation activities or lobbying for certain groups within 12 months of applying for the money. They would also be barred from these activities during the grant period, even if non-federal funds were used to pay for it. More specifically, the bill would sweepingly restrict any group that affiliates with an organization that engages in such activities from applying for funds under the affordable housing fund.