§ 183.15. Government agency voter registration procedures.
(a) Those agencies designated in section 1325(a) of the act (relating to government agencies) shall comply with the following requirements.
(1) A voter registration agency shall post in a conspicuous place in its offices a sign that indicates that an individual may register to vote in that office.
(2) An agency shall provide VRMA forms to individuals with an application, reapplication and application for recertification, renewal or change of address in the agency office or during home visits. The agency shall assist in completing the VRMA unless assistance is refused, and collect and forward the completed VRMAs to the appropriate commission. VRMAs need not be provided if the individual declines to apply to register to vote. The applicant may submit the VRMA to his commission of residence or request that the agency submit the voter registration application to the applicant’s commission of residence.
(3) At an agency, a registrant may change the registrant’s name, address or political party affiliation on the VRMA.
(4) The information required by the VRMA to register to vote shall be printed legibly in ink.
(5) A voter registration agency may not accept a VRMA that includes any erasure of, or line drawn through, information provided by the applicant relating to the applicant’s political party affiliation.
(6) A voter registration agency shall include with a VRMA or group of VRMAs that are transmitted to the county clerk or registrar of voters a transmittal form as prescribed and provided by the Department.
(7) Agency employees assisting with voter registration applications may not influence the applicant’s political preference, display partisan allegiance, discourage registration, alter benefits or imply that benefits will be altered based on registration.
(8) The identity of the agency where an applicant applies for voter registration may not be disclosed to the public.
(9) The designated agency shall transmit a completed VRMA to the appropriate commission within 10 days after it is received unless it was received within 5 days before the registration deadline, in which case it shall be transmitted not later than 5 days of its receipt.
(10) Any individual may obtain and complete a VRMA at a public assistance agency but the agency shall only include in specific totals reported to the Department those individuals who are making application, reapplication and application for recertification, renewal or change of address in the agency office or during home visits.
(b) Those agencies designated in section 1325(a) of the act shall assist interested individuals in making application to register to vote by complying with the following requirements.
(1) When an individual does any of the following—make an application, reapplication, application for recertification, renewal or change of address—the agency representative shall ask the individual: ‘‘If you are not registered to vote where you live now, would you like to apply to register to vote here today?’’
(2) The agency representative shall inform the individual that applying to register or declining to register to vote will not affect the availability or degree of assistance that will be provided by the agency.
(3) The agency representative shall give the individual a Declination Form, ask the individual to read it carefully, and assist the individual in completing the Declination Form if requested (the Declination Form contains important information for the individual and records the individual’s decision about whether the individual wants to apply to register to vote at that time).
(i) If the individual does not want to register to vote, the agency representative shall ask the individual to mark the ‘‘No’’ box and have the individual sign and date the Declination Form. If the individual is already registered to vote, the agency representative shall have the individual also mark the box ‘‘No, I am already registered to vote where I live now.’’ If the individual refuses to mark any boxes or otherwise complete the form, the agency may consider the refusal to be a decision not to apply to register to vote at this time and shall note this on the Declination Form, along with the individual’s name and address.
(ii) If the individual wants to register to vote, the agency representative shall ask the individual to mark the ‘‘Yes’’ box and to sign and date the Declination Form. The agency representative shall then give the individual a VRMA.
(4) The agency representative shall assist the individual in completing the VRMA, unless the individual refuses the assistance. The agency representative shall offer the individual the same degree of assistance in completing the VRMA and Declination Form as is provided by the agency with regard to the completion of its own forms, unless the individual refuses assistance. The agency representative shall inform the individual that he may complete the VRMA in the agency’s office or take it home to complete. The applicant may submit the VRMA to the applicant’s commission of residence or request that the agency submit the VRMA to the applicant’s commission of residence. If the applicant decides to complete the VRMA at the applicant’s home, the applicant may mail the VRMA directly to the appropriate commission office at the applicant’s own expense or return it to the agency at a later date.
(5) The agency shall mark the VRMA forms with the code assigned to its agency. The agency site coordinator will instruct agency representatives what the agency’s code is. The various codes are preprinted in the top left-hand corner of the return address portion of the VRMA form. The agency representative shall circle or place a mark on the agency’s code before giving the form to the individual, regardless of whether the individual completes it in the agency office or takes it home to complete.
(6) If the agency representative determines that an application the representative receives from an applicant is illegible, the representative shall cause a computer-generated copy of the information contained in the records to be attached to the application.
(7) The agency shall send the completed application form to the appropriate commission office according to where the applicant resides.
(8) Declination forms shall be destroyed after 22 months from the date of their creation.
(9) A voter registration agency shall, in cooperation with the county clerk or registrar of voters, conduct training programs once every 6 months to familiarize the employees of the agency with the required procedures for registering applicants through the agency.
(10) A voter registration agency shall maintain a record of the transmittal of an application to the county clerk or registrar of voters in accordance with the agency’s schedule for the retention and disposal of records.
(c) In accordance with section 1323 of the act (relating to application with driver’s license application), applications for a motor vehicle driver’s license or renewal will, if the applicant so desires, serve as an application for voter registration or an update to a previous application. The application used includes the information contained on an official voter registration application including the voter eligibility requirements, an attestation by the applicant with a signature under penalty of perjury that the applicant meets the eligibility requirements, and the penalty for submitting a false voter registration application.
(d) A State agency shall comply with the standards for confidentiality of voter registration records as set forth in the act and in this chapter.
Source The provisions of this § 183.15 adopted December 27, 2002, effective January 27, 2003, 32 Pa.B. 6340.
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