National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter)

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), commonly known as the "Motor Voter" law, transformed how Americans register to vote. It requires states to offer voter registration at DMV offices, public assistance agencies, and by mail — making registration a routine part of interacting with government rather than a separate bureaucratic hurdle.

Current Law (2026)

Legal Authority

• 52 U.S.C. § 20503 — National procedures for voter registration (requires each state to establish motor vehicle, agency, and mail voter registration procedures for federal elections)
• 52 U.S.C. § 20504 — Motor vehicle registration (every state DMV application, including renewals, serves as a voter registration application; the DMV must transmit completed forms to election officials)
• 52 U.S.C. § 20505 — Mail registration (states must accept and use the national mail voter registration form prescribed by the Election Assistance Commission)
• 52 U.S.C. § 20506 — Voter registration agencies (designates public assistance offices, disability services offices, and armed forces recruitment offices as voter registration agencies; these agencies must offer registration to every applicant)
• 52 U.S.C. § 20507 — Administration of voter registration (establishes rules for maintaining voter rolls: states must conduct reasonable programs to remove ineligible voters but cannot remove anyone solely for failure to vote; requires notice and waiting period before removal)
• 52 U.S.C. § 20508 — National mail registration form (directs the Election Assistance Commission to prescribe a national voter registration form for mail use)
• 52 U.S.C. § 20510 — Civil enforcement and preservation of records (provides for DOJ enforcement; requires election officials to preserve voter registration records for at least 22 months)
• 52 U.S.C. § 20511 — Criminal penalties (penalties for false voter registration information, voter intimidation related to registration, and interference with registration rights)

How It Works

The NVRA's core innovation is embedding voter registration into government transactions that people already do. When you apply for or renew a driver's license, the DMV form doubles as a voter registration application. You can decline to register, but the opportunity is presented automatically. The DMV transmits completed registration forms to election officials within 10 days (5 days if close to an election).

Beyond DMVs, the law designates "voter registration agencies" — offices that provide public assistance (welfare, food stamps, Medicaid), disability services, and armed forces recruitment. These agencies must offer voter registration to every person who applies for services, recertifies, or changes address. The rationale is that citizens who interact with government for basic services should have an equally easy path to participate in elections.

States must also accept a standardized national mail voter registration form, allowing anyone to register by mail without visiting a government office. The Election Assistance Commission prescribes the form — with registration records subject to FOIA at the federal level — which all states must honor (though states can require additional information on their own state forms).

The voter roll maintenance provisions are among the most litigated aspects of the law. States must conduct reasonable programs to keep voter rolls accurate — removing people who have died, moved, or become otherwise ineligible. But the law explicitly prohibits removing voters solely because they haven't voted. The safeguard process requires that before removal for suspected change of address, the state must send a notice and wait through two federal election cycles without the voter responding or voting. This prevents aggressive purges while allowing states to maintain reasonably accurate rolls.

The NVRA exempts states that either (a) have no voter registration requirement (North Dakota) or (b) allow same-day election registration at all polling places. States meeting these exceptions are considered to already provide access equal to or exceeding the NVRA's requirements.

How It Affects You

State Variations

Implementing Regulations

• 11 CFR Part 9428 — National Voter Registration Act (EAC Implementation): the Election Assistance Commission's regulations governing the national mail voter registration form — the standardized form that states must accept for voter registration under NVRA Section 6. These regulations specify what the form must contain, how it must look, and how states report registration data to the EAC. Key provisions:

  • § 9428.3 — Form components: the national mail voter registration form consists of three components: (1) a registration application with required data fields; (2) general instructions for completing the application; and (3) state-specific instructions that each state submits to the EAC detailing that state's eligibility requirements, registration deadline, and submission address; states may require applicants to use the state-specific instructions to know their state's rules, but must accept the national form itself
  • § 9428.4 — Required contents: the national form must collect the applicant's name, residential address, mailing address if different, date of birth, party affiliation (where required by state), ID number (driver's license or SSN last 4 digits), and citizenship attestation; the form must include a statement that the applicant is a U.S. citizen, meets the state's age requirements, and meets any other state eligibility requirements; it must include a warning that knowingly submitting false information is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1001; the form cannot ask for more than the state's actual eligibility requirements demand
  • § 9428.5 — Format specifications: the application card must be 5 by 8 inches of sufficient card stock; format must conform to the EAC's National Mail Voter Registration Form Technical Specifications; states may not require a different form size or format that would prevent the national form from being used
  • § 9428.6 — Chief state election official certification: each chief state election official must certify to the EAC within 30 days of the NVRA's effective date (and whenever requirements change) all voter registration eligibility requirements for that state, the state's registration deadlines, and the address to which completed forms should be returned; the EAC publishes this information as state-specific instructions accompanying the national form; the certification process keeps the national form current as state laws change
  • § 9428.7 — State reports to EAC: each chief state election official must report to the EAC by March 31 of each odd-numbered year on: total registration numbers, the number of new registrations received through each NVRA-required source (DMV, mail, public assistance agencies, armed forces recruitment offices, and other agencies), registration rejections, and voter roll maintenance activities; these biennial reports are the primary data source for NVRA compliance monitoring and academic research on voter registration patterns

  Part 9428 is the operational backbone of the national voter registration form — the form that allows registration by mail using a standardized application rather than navigating 50 different state-specific forms. The EAC's role in maintaining the national form and collecting state reports is one of the agency's core functions under NVRA. State-specific instruction updates are critical: when a state changes its registration deadline or ID requirements, the state must notify the EAC to update the instructions; outdated instructions have caused registration problems when applicants follow instructions that no longer reflect current state law. The Trump administration's 2026 executive order on voter registration, challenged by 20+ states, sought to add documentary proof of citizenship requirements to the federal form — a change that would require revising the § 9428.4 required contents if upheld. Recent rulemakings: the national form has been updated periodically through EAC administrative actions without formal rulemaking; citizenship attestation language was revised in 2014.

Pending Legislation

• HR 6102 — Let states require proof of citizenship on mail voter registration forms. Status: Introduced.
• S 3752 — Require documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration. Status: Introduced.
• S 3177 — Let states require citizenship proof on federal mail registration forms. Status: Introduced.
• S 2820 (Sen. Klobuchar, D-MN) — Require same-day voter registration for federal elections. Status: Introduced.

Recent Developments

Voter roll maintenance under the NVRA has been the subject of intense litigation, with the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute upholding Ohio's practice of using failure to vote as a trigger (though not sole basis) for the removal process. Automatic voter registration (AVR) at DMVs has expanded rapidly as a state-level policy that builds on the NVRA's motor-voter foundation, alongside HAVA's statewide database requirements. Digital modernization of registration systems continues to improve accuracy and reduce duplicate registrations across states.

• SAVE Act — citizenship verification requirement (HR 22, 119th Congress): The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act passed the House on April 10, 2025 (220-208) but as of May 2026 has not advanced through the Senate. If enacted, the bill would require documentary proof of citizenship (passport, birth certificate, REAL ID, or similar) to register to vote in federal elections — overriding the NVRA's "attestation only" registration standard. Critics argue this creates a barrier for the estimated 21 million citizens who don't have readily available documentary proof; proponents argue it prevents non-citizen registration. The Trump administration's March 2025 executive order on elections sought to administratively impose similar requirements through the EAC; multiple lawsuits have challenged it.
• Voter roll purge litigation — Republican state acceleration: Several Republican-governed states (Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Virginia) accelerated voter roll maintenance programs in 2024-2025, removing voters at rates higher than the 90-day NVRA quiet period before an election and using methodologies (crossing rolls with jury duty questionnaire responses, citizenship databases) that voting rights organizations challenged as error-prone. The NVRA requires a "reasonable effort" before removal; courts have issued conflicting rulings on whether particular purge methodologies meet that standard. Virginia's large-scale pre-2024 purge was partially reversed by court order.
• Noncitizen voter registration — the factual gap: The justification for the SAVE Act and state citizenship verification requirements centers on noncitizen registration. DOJ and state election officials have consistently found that noncitizen voter registration is extremely rare — involving hundreds of inadvertent registrations (not votes) in any given election cycle. The SAVE Act's documentary proof requirement imposes costs on millions of eligible citizens to address a problem that existing penalty-of-perjury attestation and post-registration database matching already handles. The policy debate is not primarily about facts — both sides accept that noncitizen registration is rare — but about which error (letting a rare noncitizen register vs. blocking a legal citizen) the system should prioritize preventing.
• Automatic voter registration expansion — blue state momentum: Offsetting the SAVE Act's registration barriers, 24 states and Washington DC have implemented automatic voter registration (AVR) — automatically registering eligible voters when they interact with DMVs or other state agencies, with an opt-out option. AVR has added millions of registrants and increased the completeness of voter rolls. AVR is implemented under NVRA's motor-voter framework; the SAVE Act's documentary proof requirement would conflict with state AVR systems that register voters based on DMV records rather than requiring additional documentation.