For Immediate Release

In response to the Secretary of State’s April 7, 2017 letter to the DMV, the ACLU of Nevada issued the following statement:

Under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) the DMV cannot make determinations regarding voter eligibility and must transmit all signed voter registration applications it receives to the appropriate State election official. It is then the duty of the state election officials to determine voter eligibility.  The NVRA also requires all applications and renewals for driver’s licenses and ID cards to serve as voter registration applications.

In March of 2016, the ACLU of Nevada, League of Women Voters of Nevada, and other voting rights advocates sent letters to both the DMV and Nevada Secretary of State notifying them of Nevada’s systemic non-compliance with the NVRA. After a year-long process, both the SOS and the DMV entered into detailed MOUs with these voting rights advocates to fix the violations.  Consistent with the NVRA, the MOUs require the DMV to transmit voter registration applications to the appropriate state election official without regard to completeness.

The March 13, 2017 NVRA MOU announcement:

https://www.aclunv.org/en/news/voting-rights-advocates-announce-agreement-state-nevada-modernize-voter-registration

About American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada

The ACLU of Nevada is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to the defense and advancement of civil liberties and civil rights for all people in Nevada since 1966. For additional information, please visit http://www.aclunv.org.

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