--------------------------------------------------------- ¦ REFERENCE TITLE: National Voter Registration Act; amend ¦ --------------------------------------------------------- ¦ ¦ ¦ State of Arizona ¦ ¦ House of Representatives ¦ ¦ Forty-fourth Legislature ¦ ¦ Second Regular Session ¦ ¦ 2000 ¦ --------------------------------------------------------- ¦ HCM 2007 ¦ --------------------------------------------------------- ¦ Introduced by ¦ ¦ Representative Jarrett ¦ ---------------------------------------------------------
A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL
URGING THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES TO CONSIDER AMENDING THE NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 1993.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
To the Congress of the United States:
Your memorialist respectfully represents:
Whereas, the goals of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 included increasing the number of citizens who register to vote, enhancing the participation of eligible citizens in the voting process, protecting the integrity of the electoral process and ensuring accurate and current voter registration rolls. Many of these goals have been met, yet the Act has imposed additional burdensome requirements on the states; and
Whereas, the Act requires that every person who visits a public assistance office be asked whether that person wishes to register to vote. If the person declines, the agency must obtain a "declination form" with the declining person's signature. In many cases, people visit the public assistance office every month, and the multiple declination forms generate a tremendous amount of duplicative and unnecessary paperwork for the Office of the Arizona Secretary of State. The initial intent of these declination forms was to maintain statistics on the number of people registering to vote at these offices, yet because of the impossibility of maintaining accurate counts, reporting has been abandoned; and
Whereas, the Act additionally requires that the state distribute two first-class mailings to remove a person's name from the active voter list. This burdensome and expensive requirement often fails to result in the removal of a person's name from the list since most people incorrectly assume that the return of one response card has removed them from the list; and
Whereas, the National Voter Registration Act should be amended to discontinue these costly and unnecessary requirements.
Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:
1. That the Congress of the United States consider the issues set out above and amend the National Voter Registration Act accordingly, or provide the necessary funds that would enable the states to adequately fulfill these requirements.
2. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.