Voter list maintenance: Explainer for people in a hurry
Your voter registration might be inactive because you’ve dropped the conversation with your local election office.
In the lead up to major elections, we often hear alarms go off about large numbers of people being “purged” from voter lists. Election officials use the term “list maintenance.” This is an ongoing process, though some states conduct a major cleanup once or twice a year.
People don’t get taken off voter lists for no reason — there’s a continuous conversation going on between election offices and registered voters. People get taken off the voter list either when they ask to be, or when they stop taking part in that conversation.
The overall goal is to make sure voter lists are as accurate as possible. Election officials work on this nearly every day. It is a continuous effort monitoring a constantly moving target of people who come of age, move, or die.
Federal law requires accurate voter lists
Among other things, the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), a federal law, requires state and local election officials to ensure that their voter lists are accurate. States can also enact other provisions that go beyond the NVRA, and many do.
In addition, states that had Election Day registration when the NVRA passed, or had no voter registration requirements, are not subject to the NVRA (Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming). They do have state requirements to ensure that the voter rolls are accurate and well maintained.
Each state has a statewide voter registration database, thanks to the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). This helps local election offices work more efficiently and, as people move around a state, prevents duplicate registrations.
Election officials have a process for list maintenance
If you’re an election administrator and it’s your job to make sure you have accurate voter lists, you need a process. Most states go to a lot of trouble to make sure:
- only people who should be are on the list, and
- no one who wants to vote is taken off by mistake.
The most common approach is through postal mail. Some states send postcards to every registered voter at the address on their voter registration every year or two. If your postcard comes back to the election office as undeliverable, most states will try to find your current address and send you a postcard there. Some also try to check to see if you might have registered in another state. Most state election offices collaborate on voter list maintenance.
Government data can be helpful
On the upside of there being data about you in government systems, that data can help election offices check your voter registration status without having to bug you all the time.
There are several sources of data:
NCOA. Every two weeks the US Postal Service publishes a report of address changes that have been filed with them as part of the National Change of Address (NCOA) service. Officials compare this list to their voter list. If the data shows that someone moved, in some states, election officials send a postcard to the new address so you can confirm it for your voter registration. In other states, election offices send postcards to both the old and new addresses. If you move, one of the most important things you can do is put in a quick change of address with the Post Office.
State department of motor vehicles. DMVs have been registering voters as part of “motor voter” since 1993 (also part of NVRA). The DMV sends data to the election department regularly (usually at least every day), including changes of address. In a growing number of states, election officials verify and update addresses in existing voter registrations. Even if nothing has changed for a voter registration, a DMV transaction is part of the conversation that lets election officials know you are still at your address.
State death records, state and federal corrections agencies, and courts. In many states, this data is online and can be shared among state agencies, but there’s often a lag. It is common that these databases are only synched up monthly. There aren’t always good APIs or matching data formats.
Social Security Administration death records. This federal agency maintains a list of deceased persons that states can subscribe to.
Other states. When you register to vote, there’s a place on the form to give your previous address. If it’s in a state that is different from where you’re registering, some states will notify each other so your old registration can be canceled.
Most people aren’t removed — they move to “inactive” status
If you register to vote the first time and stay in one state, and vote every now and then, you’re likely to be registered for life. But if you don’t stay in one place and you don’t vote for a long time, you might end up with an “inactive” status next to your name in the voter list. That just means that you either have dropped out of the conversation because you haven’t answered some communication from the election office, they think you might have moved, or you haven’t voted in a while. (The rules for how a voter becomes “inactive” vary by state.)
Your voter registration might be tagged as “inactive” while the election office is working on their part of verifying your status. (See the discussion about data above.) For example, if they get a notice that you’ve moved, and they’re waiting to hear back from you with your accurate address, you might be temporarily inactive in the interim.
Some people register but don’t vote. You cannot be dropped from the voter list for not voting. Most states will move you to “inactive” status, though. You get reactivated by updating or confirming your voter registration address either through the DMV, replying to a postcard from the election office, or re-registering. You can also move to “active” status by actually voting.
You will be removed from the voter rolls if the election office has evidence that you have died, you have been convicted of certain crimes, or if you have been judged mentally incapacitated by a court. Again, these updates typically happen monthly, as required by state law, so there could be a lag in processing.
Voters make a moving target
Voters don’t make any of this easy. Voters move (a lot). They die. They change their names. Some are convicted of felonies. Others become mentally incapacitated (as judged by a court). The changes never take a pause.
According to the NVRA, you can’t be removed from a voter list within 90 days of an election. (With some exceptions, of course.) But voters’ lives go on (or don’t). So, the voter list is never perfect.
To make sure your voter registration is up to date, go to vote.gov and pick your state. You’ll be linked to the state website, where you can look yourself up and, if there is online voter registration, update your information.
