In its biennial report to Congress on the status of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) provided data showing that states have failed to fully implement the 1993 law. The primary goal of the NVRA was to increase the number of people who vote in federal elections. To do so, the law required that public agencies — such as those which distribute welfare benefits — take steps to increase voter registration among low-income Americans. A coalition of nonprofits — Project Vote, DEMOS and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law — released a joint statement July 3 calling attention to the failure of the states to enforce Section 7 of the NVRA and called for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to take action to force states to do so. The EAC report to Congress was based significantly on data from the 2006 Election Administration and Voting Survey, which was completed by states in accordance with the requirements of the NVRA. Forty-four states completed the survey. Some of the key results:

• From the 2004 to 2006 elections, most states have experienced a decrease in the absolute number of registered voters and the percentage of voting age citizens registered to vote
• Among the registration applications received by states in the last two years, motor vehicle agencies were the most frequent recipient — collecting 45.7 percent of all applications
• Registrations by public agencies have decreased by 80 percent from 1995-1996 (when the NVRA went into effect) to 2005-2006
• Only 59 percent of citizens in households making less than $15,000 registered to vote in 2005-2006 — compared to 85 percent in households making $75,000 or more
• Only six states provide training at least every two years to public agencies on conducting voter registrations, indicating that untrained individuals may be conducting voter registration efforts, where they are occurring

With the lack of apparent voter registration training, the EAC recommended that all states conduct in-person trainings with all agencies conducting voter registration activities. Other recommendations in the report included 1) modernization of electronic reporting and list maintenance systems, 2) development of statewide voter registration databases to enable states to track citizens' voting patterns over time, and 3) establishment of data collection systems within each state to track the data required by the NVRA. In commenting on this third recommendation, the EAC report states that the value of the biennial Election Administration and Voting Survey is "limited when States and jurisdictions report data in an inconsistent and noncomparable fashion or do not collect relevant data, even when required to do so by the NVRA." In their press release, Project Vote, DEMOS and the Lawyers' Committee highlighted the fact that the DOJ has only brought one lawsuit to enforce the NVRA, despite solid evidence that there is widespread under-compliance. The nonprofits argue that DOJ intervention is important because when the DOJ has taken action, the impact has been significant. The one lawsuit DOJ filed was against the state of Tennessee. After taking steps to rectify their poor record of voter registration, Tennessee has seen a dramatic increase in the number of voter registrations completed by public agencies. In 2006, almost a quarter of all registrations filed by public agencies were in Tennessee. This is not the first time that this coalition of nonprofits has pressed the DOJ to enforce the NVRA. In 2004 and 2005, in an effort to assess the state of implementation of the NVRA, Project Vote, DEMOS and ACORN conducted site visits with public agencies across several states, reviewed available evidence from the EAC and the Federal Election Commission and interviewed state officials. Through this investigation, they confirmed that in nearly all fifty states, the NVRA had not been implemented. The groups subsequently published a report documenting their findings. In its report, the coalition called for state agencies to incorporate voter registration more comprehensively into their daily activities. To ensure that agencies do so, the coalition made a similar demand as the EAC report does, recommending that states maintain more comprehensive and efficient databases on voter registration records. Without this type of accountability, the nonprofit coalition argued, state agencies will be unlikely to fulfill their tremendous potential as channels of voter engagement for low-income Americans as was envisioned by the NVRA legislation. SIDEBAR House Passes Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act In other election news, the House passed the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1281) on June 25. The bill would make it a felony to knowingly communicate false information during a federal election with the intention of preventing a person from voting. If the bill becomes law, those who violate the prohibition could face up to five years in prison. No one expressed opposition to the bill during the voice vote. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and garnered 60 cosponsors in the House. Emanuel was quoted in a USA Today article on the bill's passage and said, "This reform will put an end to campaign practices that disenfranchise thousands of American voters and will give citizens the right to cast a ballot free from intimidation and misinformation." The bill was widely supported by House Democrats, who raised objections during the 2006 elections about campaign tactics used by Republicans. Republicans, on the other hand, have asserted that voter fraud is the most pressing issue related to elections. H.R. 1281, however, makes no mention of voter fraud. A companion bill (S. 453) has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and 15 cosponsors. On June 7, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill, but the full Senate has not taken action.