A growing body of state laws and regulations governing voter registration and the voting process create barriers to voting that discriminate against minorities, new citizens and the elderly. Nonprofits are challenging these new voter suppression tactics, including filing several lawsuits. These voter drives build off efforts that support election reform programs mandated by the Help America Vote Act of 2002, and these developments illustrate just how important nonprofit organizations are as vehicles of civic participation.

Recently federal courts have struck down state rules limiting the ability of nonprofits to register voters in Florida and Ohio. In Florida the League of Women Voters, the AFL-CIO, and American Federation of State and Municipal Employees were forced to stop registering voters until the court blocked enforcement of a new state rule. The rule mandated that nonprofits turn in voter registration cards within 10 days or pay stiff penalties for late submission. Groups were engaged in statewide voter registration drives and said the law created a logistical impossibility.

In Ohio, Project Vote, People for the American Way Foundation, and Common Cause Ohio successfully challenged a law that would have required all voting registrars (including nonprofit volunteers) to complete an online training course and to submit the registrations personally instead of through the nonprofit sponsor, or face criminal penalties. A similar proposed rule in New Jersey requiring forms to be turned in within five days of registration is being challenged by the Brennan Center for Justice.

New, stringent voter identification requirements are also being challenged. In Ohio the Brennan Center has filed suit on behalf of naturalized citizens challenging a law that allows poll workers to request that voters produce documentation proving their U.S. citizenship. The law does not apply to citizens born in the United States.

In Washington the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Service Employees International Union, Washington Citizens Action, and the Washington Association of Churches won a case challenging a state law that would have kept citizens from voting if their identification information did not match government databases exactly. This would have kept otherwise eligible voters off of voter rolls if there had been even a minor typographical error. However, in Missouri a state judge recently sided with the state on a similar issue, even while acknowledging the potential high cost of compliance with the law by several voters.

In Congress, a bill (H.R. 4844) would require all citizens that want to register to vote to show proof of citizenship. It is possible the bill could come up for a floor vote in the House of Representatives during the week of Sept.18. This action follows up on an effort by a group of Republican lawmakers to hold up the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act Reauthorization this summer. It was eventually passed, but not before an attempt to limit its scope and protections was made.