Statement of Administration Policy: S. 250 - National Voter Registration Act of 1991

(SENT 6/11/91)
(Senate)
(Ford (D) Kentucky and 24 others)

The Administration endorses the goal of increasing participation in the electoral process. However, the Administration opposes S. 250, and urges enactment of the amendment in the nature of a substitute (S. 921) expected to be proposed by Senators Dole and Stevens.

S. 250 would rewrite the election laws of virtually all States (except for States with no voter registration requirement at all or States with election day registration). It would require the States to employ three methods of registering voters for Federal elections, and specify in considerable detail what the States would have to do to implement each of the three methods. It would also restrict the grounds for removal of ineligible voters.

The Administration opposes S. 250 in its current form because: (1) a sufficient justification has not been demonstrated for imposing extensive procedural requirements and significant related costs on the States; (2) the bill would increase substantially the risk of voter fraud without enacting any effective criminal prohibitions that go beyond the limits of existing law; and (3) the Voting Rights Act of 1965 already provides sufficient tools to challenge registration procedures that are discriminatory.

Although many States have adopted innovative registration practices, including variations of the three mandated by the bill, those jurisdictions also use a variety of procedures to guard against fraud and maintain the integrity of the electoral process. They are able to adapt and tailor the procedures to take into account local conditions that may make some practices more effective than others or may call for special measures to avoid fraud or for avoiding certain practices entirely. That essential flexibility to respond to local conditions would be forbidden by this bill. In particular, S. 250 would create substantial opportunities for abuse because it would limit the State's ability to confirm independently the information contained in voter registration applications and severely restrict the States' ability to remove ineligible voters from the rolls. This serious potential for fraud and corruption would be compounded by the current limitations in Federal criminal law governing electoral crimes and other forms of public corruption, which S. 250 does not effectively address.

The Dole-Stevens substitute, by contrast, would promote increased voter participation in elections by giving States an incentive to implement voluntarily nondiscriminatory registration procedures through a system of Federal block grants with a matching fund requirement for States. It would also clamp down on public corruption through stiffer fines and expanding the scope of Federal jurisdiction to prosecute election crimes.