NVRA Section 5: Agency-Based Voter Registration
Domain 2 tests Section 5, the agency-based mandate that turns social service offices into registration sites. Expect questions on which offices must be designated, what those offices must do, and what they must never do.
Which offices
States must designate (1) all offices administering public assistance programs, state or local - SNAP, Medicaid, TANF and the like; (2) all state offices providing state-funded programs primarily serving persons with disabilities, plus offices serving people with disabilities more broadly, such as vocational rehabilitation; and (3) Armed Forces recruiting offices. States may add agencies by designation - libraries, tax offices, unemployment offices, WIC clinics.
Duties
Each agency must distribute the registration form and declination form with each application, recertification, renewal, or change of address; assist applicants in completing forms to the same degree it assists with its own services; accept completed applications; transmit them to election officials within 10 days of receipt, or by the registration deadline if later; and provide a statement of eligibility requirements and the penalty for fraudulent registration.
Protections
Services may not be conditioned on registering or declining, and staff may not coerce, discourage, or discriminate. The identity of the agency through which a person registered is confidential, and information about a declination may not be used for any purpose other than voter registration.
Worked example
A SNAP caseworker tells an applicant 'registration is at the library,' handing over nothing. Analysis: the office is a mandated Section 5 site, so the failure breaches both the distribution and the assistance duties. Because no form and no declination were ever offered, the error is not cured by the library's availability.
Traps
Treating DMV as a Section 5 agency (it is Section 7); believing agency staff must decide voter eligibility or give legal advice; assuming a declination can affect benefits; assuming agencies register voters themselves rather than collect and transmit applications.