National Voter Registration Act of 1993 NVRA

Before 1993, registration rules varied widely by state, and many eligible citizens never registered, often because offices were open only limited hours. Reformers pushed a motor voter bill to let people register when they applied for a driver license. President George H. W. Bush vetoed a version in 1992, and President Bill Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act on May 20, 1993, and it took effect in 1995.

The law requires states to offer voter registration with driver license applications, at public assistance and disability service offices, and at armed forces recruiting offices, and to accept a national mail voter registration form now maintained by the Election Assistance Commission. Section 8 sets rules for keeping rolls accurate: states must make reasonable efforts to remove ineligible voters but may not remove someone for failing to vote alone, and must follow notice and waiting procedures before removing voters who may have moved. Several states with election-day registration or no registration were exempted.

In Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona in 2013, the Supreme Court held 7 to 2 that states must accept the federal form and cannot add their own proof of citizenship requirement to it without the Commission's approval, and in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute in 2018 it upheld Ohio's process for removing inactive voters, 5 to 4. A March 2025 executive order directed the Commission to require documentary proof of citizenship on the federal form, a step federal courts blocked. Supporters credit the law with adding millions of registrants, while critics say it makes it harder to keep rolls clean.