21 Civil and Human Rights Groups Call on President Obama to Bring Health Care Exchanges into Compliance with Voting Rights Law

WASHINGTON – Today, 21 civil rights and voting rights groups issued the following joint statement calling on President Obama to take immediate action to ensure that millions of Americans are not denied their rights to receive assistance in registering to vote under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) when signing up for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA):

“We congratulate the President on his administration’s remarkable achievement to ensure affordable health care for all, but we are concerned about the failure of the health benefit exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act to comply with existing federal law requiring public assistance agencies to provide opportunities for potential voters to register.

The NVRA, widely known as the ‘motor voter’ law, requires all public assistance agencies to provide people with an opportunity to register to vote in tandem with their benefits applications.  The NVRA was enacted more than 20 years ago, with strong bipartisan support, to reach eligible citizens who might not register to vote through other means. This law has been a vital boon to our democracy: tens of millions of Americans have become registered voters because they were offered voter registration by the DMV, through Medicaid applications and other government transactions.

The health benefit exchanges operated by the federal government are currently in violation of the NVRA. Since the enactment of the ACA in 2010, the administration has not taken any steps to ensure that the federal exchanges—which are operating in approximately 37 states—are fulfilling their requirements under the NVRA. Currently, there is no meaningful opportunity to register to vote available to individuals using the federal exchange processes.

More than one million Americans have already lost the opportunity to register to vote because of this failure. With another open enrollment period beginning November 1, hundreds of thousands more will be denied this federally-guaranteed opportunity if the administration does not take immediate and effective action.

The ability to register and vote is a crucial part of citizens participating in our democracy. The ACA is one of the crowning achievements of the Obama presidency, and we are certain the President—who has fought for voting rights his entire career—does not wish its tremendous accomplishments to come at the cost of the progress of the NVRA. We call on his administration to take all necessary steps to bring the exchanges into compliance with this landmark law, and ensure that a meaningful opportunity to register to vote is available.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

A. Philip Randolph Institute

AFL-CIO

American Civil Liberties Union

American Friends Service Committee

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)

Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote

Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF)

Common Cause

Communications Workers of America

Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN)

Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley (ILCHV)

NAACP

National Collaborative for Health Equity

National Council of Jewish Women

National Council on Independent Living (NCIL)

National Disability Rights Network (NDRN)

National LGBTQ Task Force

Nebraskans for Civic Reform

People For the American Way

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org