The Food Research Action Center (FRAC) and Demos recently released a Primer for Advocates on the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
In addition to providing important background on the NVRA, the primer explores the critical role public assistance agencies—such as those administering SNAP, WIC and Medicaid—can play in nonpartisan voter registration. Key findings included:
- The lowest-income voter registrants—those making less than $30,000 per year—register at public assistance agencies at disproportionately high rates. In 2016, these lowest-income voter registrants were only 11% of the total registered population, but they represented nearly half—49%—of those who reported registering to vote at public assistance agencies.
- Some communities of color register at public assistance agencies at much higher rates than their percentage of the overall registered public. In 2016, black registrants made up 13% of the total registered population, but they represented 35% of those who registered to vote at public assistance agencies. Latinos made up 10% of all registered people but 19% of those registered at public assistance agencies.
These findings underscore the important role public agencies play in ensuring low-income people and communities of color register to vote. Advocates can support public assistance agencies’ voter registration efforts; the Primer includes ways to get engaged.
Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020, NLIHC’s nonpartisan candidate and voter engagement project, recently released a comprehensive tool kit with resources and materials to support housing advocates’ voter-engagement efforts. Be sure to check out those resources as well.