Q&A of the Day – Why Do DMV’s Hand Out Voter Registration Forms?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio Proof of citizenship is not required at FLHSMV when handing out registrations? Making forms accessible OK, nothing else. Not their job to register voters. FLORIDA How do I apply for voter registration? You can apply for voter registration while doing your driver license…
Bottom Line: With concerns persisting over the potential for illegal immigrants to vote in this year’s election, questions like yours have been increasingly common. In early August I was asked to address a video purporting to show illegal immigrants lined up at a DMV in South Florida (that claim proved to be bogus). It’s understandable though, that with a record number of illegal immigrants having made their way into our country during the Biden-Harris administration, and with many still having election integrity questions pertaining to the previous presidential election, this issue is getting as much attention as it is. What you’re describing, voter registration forms being handed out at Florida’s DMV’s along with documents to obtain an ID, isn’t new and it isn’t unique to Florida. In fact, it wasn’t and isn’t Florida’s decision to do it.
In 1993, one of the earliest policies passed by the Democrat-controlled congress and signed into law by the newly elected President Bill Clinton, was The National Voter Registration Act. While states are allowed to operate elections as they see fit... Democrats saw an opportunity within the law to mandate how states conduct voter registration. The Act effectively federalized the voter registration process. Under the Act, states were mandated to accept voter registration forms via mail, to make voter registration forms available at state and local government offices, and yes, that included DMV’s. In fact, specific to DMV’s, the law took extra steps to issue mandates beyond making voter registration forms available. As the Justice Department explains:
Each State must include a voter registration form as part of an application for a State driver’s license and any application for driver’s license renewal.
The voter registration portion of the application may not require any information that duplicates information required on the driver’s license portion of the application and may require only the minimum amount of information necessary to prevent duplicate voter registrations and permit State officials both to determine the eligibility of the applicant to vote and to administer the voting process.
So, what you’ve experienced and are describing at the DMV, is what every person applying for a license at any DMV has experienced under federal law since 1993. It’s what people have commonly referred to as the “Motor Voter Law”. Now, subsequent to the federal law, Florida passed a companion law, as most states did for the implementation of the federal law. Florida’s law, passed in 1994, was called the Florida Voter Registration Act. Florida’s law specifies:
The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shall provide the opportunity to register to vote or to update a voter registration record to each individual who comes to an office of that department to:
(a) Apply for or renew a driver license;
(b) Apply for or renew an identification card pursuant to chapter 322; or
(c) Change an address on an existing driver license or identification card.
(2) The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shall:
(a) Notify each individual, orally or in writing, that:
1. Information gathered for the completion of a driver license or identification card application, renewal, or change of address can be automatically transferred to a voter registration application.
While that’s Florida’s law under the direction of the federal voter registration act, where we really see differences crop up is in the vetting process of voter registration forms. Some states allow same day voter registration and voting. Some states don’t mandate proof of citizenship to register. Some states don’t mandate voter ID. Some local governments enable non-citizens to register to vote in local elections (raising questions about whether they’re only voting in local elections).
According to the Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard, Florida is currently tied with Alabama and Georgia for having undertaken the second-best election integrity measures, with a score of 83 points out of a possible 100 (Tennessee is #1 with a score of 90). The worst performing state is Hawaii with a 27 by way of comparison. So obviously every state could stand to improve election integrity measures, though Florida’s doing far more than most to combat issues a la ineligible voters registering and voting.