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Whether or not to make welfare and unemployment offices voting agencies was a very contentious issue that was divided primarily down party lines. Originally, all public assistance offices and agencies were required to provide voting registration services. However, Republicans wanted the decision whether or not welfare and unemployment compensation offices should be used left up to the states. Yet the committee came back with this response: “if a state does not include either public assistance, agencies serving persons with disabilities, or unemployment compensation offices in its agency program, it will exclude a segment of its population from those for whom registration will be convenient and readily available-the poor and persons with disabilities who do not have driver’s licenses and will not come into contact with the other principle place to register under this Act” (CHA, 19) Essentially, the committee refused to make all the public assistance offices optional. If it was optional, many states (in an attempt to lessen costs) would choose to not make them voting agencies. Given that the goal of the bill was to make it more accessible, denying the segment of the population that needed assistance the most was contradictory. The Republicans returned that if these offices were required to provide registration, they

wanted some agencies that served their constituents, such as tax bureaus, and Mom and Pop stores that issue hunting and fishing licenses…The more the list grew, the more election officials objected that the system would be unmanageable. The Republicans then argued that the list should be restricted to DMVs and agencies serving the disabled…When all was said and done, the final legislation required that voter registration be conducted in DMVs, public assistance agencies (AFDC, Food Stamps, Medicaid, and WIC), agencies serving the disabled, and military recruitment offices. Unemployment agencies, originally mandated, were made option, a concession to the Republicans in the bargaining process. State officials were also required to designate several other agencies, at their discretion, in which registration would be available, such as libraries, public schools, and unemployment offices.” (Pivin and Cloward 329)

In the original House bill, any welfare offices and unemployment compensation offices were required to be designated as voter registration agencies, but the Senate amendment changed it that this was optional except for public assistance agencies, which were specified as “ those state agencies in each state that administer or provide services under the food stamp, medicaid, the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs” (CHA, 19). Thus, the final act reads that the places that will be designated as voter registration agencies are all offices…that provide public assistance and all offices…that provide state-funded programs primarily engaged in providing services to persons with disabilities.


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Latest page update: made by voter , Mar 21 2007, 10:14 PM EDT (about this update About This Update voter Edited by voter


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