Voter Registration
The National Voter Registration Act is a federal law designed to increase citizens’ access to voter registration opportunities. It requires agencies such as the Division of Public Assistance to make every effort to ensure public assistance applicants and recipients have a chance to register to vote. In the past few months DPA staff all across the state have been very successful ensuring that our customers have that opportunity. Vote Here signs are everywhere and in the last few months DPA accepted 744 registrations. A significant increase over the 400 received last year.
It is very important for us to sustain this effort. Both because it is the right thing to do and because there can be serious consequences for states that do not meet the conditions and requirements of the NVRA. For instance, the Act requires DPA to:
• Advise our customers that they can register to vote at a DPA office and that DPA will forward their registration to the Division of Elections.
• Ensure that whoever applies for public assistance, recertifies their participation, or reports a change of address, must receive a VR form or a form on which they can decline to register.
• Offer and provide customers with assistance to complete the VR forms.
Given our application volumes and the frequency of requests to change addresses, these responsibilities could be an enormous workload burden. We are working actively with the Division of Elections to put practices in place that meet the intent of the NVRA, do not flood our clients with more paper, and have as little impact as possible on our direct service offices.
So far, DPA
• Added the VR forms to all of our on-line applications
• Updated Web pages with links to the Division of Elections
• Updated the Heating Assistance application to include the forms
• Got approval from Elections to send out biannual VR forms to clients instead of sending forms with every renewal application.
• Provided all DPA offices and our partner agencies with VR forms
Before the end of the year, DPA will:
• Print the Gen 50b application to include the VR forms (the old applications should still be used as long as the VR forms have been attached)
• Provide NVRA training for all staff and partner agencies
• Provide by mail, voter registration opportunities to every household that receives public assistance (including ATAP, Food Stamps, Medicaid and all households served by other state-funded programs primarily engaged in providing services to persons with disabilities).
Plans are also in the works to add the VR forms to the Gen 72 and to automate mailing of VR forms whenever there is an update on the Address screen (ADDR) on EIS.
Understanding and complying with the NVRA is a job for every DPA employee. You will learn more about the NVRA and DPA’s responsibilities when you take the short web-based training provided by our Staff Development & Training team. This mandatory training provides the background of the NVRA and the tools necessary to ensure you are complying with the federal law. Use this link to go to Moodle Web-based Trainings (WBT):
http://dpaweb.hss.state.ak.us/training/moodle/login/index.php
• Log in with your LDAP Username and Password.
• In the left column, see Web-Based Training and click on Voters Registration.
• The first time you try to open a WBT, it will ask you for an enrollment key. The enrollment key is: 2697864.
Every vote counts and you are helping to give Alaskans the chance to have their voice heard.
Thank you!
Ron Kreher, Director
Division of Public Assistance