(The Center Square) – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, are working to expand automatic voter registration.
They urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to speed up its work with states to expand automatic voter registration through the Medicaid application process.
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill into law earlier this year authorizing the Oregon Health Authority to automatically register unregistered people to vote when they apply for Medicaid.
Under the new law, authority can share the name, age, residence, citizenship, and electronic signature of Medicaid applicants with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office.
“The law ensures important privacy guardrails and also allows Oregonians to opt out of registering to vote,” the press release from Wyden’s office said.
About 85% of Oregonians not registered to vote who are eligible to register are “likely” to qualify for Medicaid through the Oregon Health Plan, the release said.
The law would result in more low-income Oregonians being registered to vote. However, it can only take effect if the Center for Medicaid Services approves the data-sharing proposal between the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Secretary of State’s office.
“Although voter participation has increased in recent elections, a recent study found that more than 34 million eligible voters are not registered to vote. AVR has a long track record of successfully bridging this registration gap. For example, in the seven years since Oregon became the first state to implement AVR through a ‘motor voter’ law, Oregon’s voter registration lists have expanded from 2.16 million to more than 2.98 million. These trends have been echoed in states across the country that have implemented AVR,” the senators wrote in a letter to Center for Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “Expanding AVR has shown to be one of the most promising avenues to promote voting access, but states need support from the federal government in order to implement it. . . We urge CMS to work with state officials in states that have approved Medicaid-based AVR in order to expeditiously implement automatic voter registration through the Medicaid application process.”
Wyden and Merkley asked the administrator to respond to these questions by September 20, according to the release:
What is CMS currently doing to comply with Executive Order 14019?What resources does CMS need to work with states to approve state plan amendments authorizing AVR and ensure that states can effectively implement AVR through the Medicaid application process?Does CMS have a timeline for consideration of this request and those from other states that have passed similar legislation?
One can read the Senators’ letter here.
