Washington, D.C. -Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, sent letters to officials in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas seeking information about their compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) through the annual Medicaid renewal process.
Under regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act, states must renew eligibility determinations for its Medicaid program each year and can automatically renew enrollment without seeking additional information from recipients. When enrollments are automatically renewed, recipients should be offered the opportunity to register to vote.
“The Subcommittee seeks to ensure that Medicaid recipients going through the automatic renewal process are offered the opportunity to register to vote as required by the NVRA," Chairman Raskin wrote. “State Medicaid offices are voter registration agencies under the NVRA and must ‘distribute’ a voter registration form ‘with each recertification, renewal, or change of address form relating to such service or assistance.’"
The Subcommittee is beginning this effort with ten states that conduct automatic renewals and have among the largest number of Medicaid recipients. These states account for 23.5 million Americans enrolled in Medicaid, and all should be able to register to vote each time they are renewed.
Chairman Raskin requested that the states provide all relevant information by March 9, 2020.
