What is National Voter Registration?

The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which took effect in most states in 1995, requires each state to:

	Enable individuals to register to vote in local, state, and federal elections using a postacard voter registration form.*
	Offer voter registration when people apply for a driver's license, renew a driver's license, or change their address with their state's motor vehicle agency (hence the nickname "motor voter"); or apply for public assistance, defined as Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Women Infants and Children (WIC), Medicare, or payments from state-funded agencies serving the disabled.
	Make voter registratin available by mail, without requiring a witness or notary.
	Mail a follow-up notice to new voter registration applicants informing them of the status of their application (registered, rejected, or requiring additional information).
	Stop "purging" from the registration lists people who do not vote.

* There are some exceptions to the law.  New Hampshire and Wisconsin town, village, and city clerks will accept the form only as a request for their own mail-in absentee voter registration form.  North Dakota does not have voter registration.  Wyoming cannot accpet this form under state law.  States that accept the national form now will accept copies of the application printed from the computer image on regular paper stock, signed by the applicant, and mailed in an envelope with first class postage.  Some relatively minor modifications were made to the form under the Help American Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).  Visit www.fec.gov for details.

The law requires the federal government to:

	Require the Federal Election Commission to develop a form that will be accepted in all states that do not offer Election Day registration (available on-line at www.fec.gov/votregis/vr.htm).
	Offer voter registration at military recruitment offices.