Get Medicaid Recipients Into Colorado's Automatic Voter Registration System, Bennet Urges

By Sara Wilson, Colorado Newsline

February 2, 2022

Nearly three years after the Colorado legislature authorized automatic voter registration for Medicaid recipients, the state has yet to implement the plan because of roadblocks at the federal level.

Colorado currently has an automatic voter registration, or AVR, system that relies on the DMV. When a voting-eligible person applies for a driver’s license or ID card, their information is sent to the secretary of state’s office for automatic registration, and the individual receives a letter letting them know how to decline or affiliate with a political party.

A January 2022 analysis estimates the policy led to approximately 200,000 registrations in one year.

“The automatic voter registration system is working, and it’s leading more eligible but unregistered Coloradans to participate in our democracy,” Democratic state Rep. Kyle Mullica, one of the sponsors of the AVR legislation, said in a statement celebrating the system’s success.

The AVR policy was meant to include a similar process with Medicaid recipients, but it has not yet come to fruition due to a lack of guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Similar to the DMV process, the Medicaid-based AVR would authorize Health First Colorado, the state’s Medicaid program, to automatically transfer data of voting-eligible individuals.

Colorado state officials have been waiting for confirmation from the Centers that the AVR plan would not create compliance issues with Medicaid. No state has been able to implement Medicaid-based AVR so far.

Sen. Michael Bennet sent a letter Tuesday to the Centers’ administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, urging the office to approve Colorado’s plan.

“Medicaid AVR has the potential to enhance civic participation and voter registration opportunities for low-income citizens,” Bennet wrote. “A well-designed Medicaid AVR system could streamline voter registration for enrollees, improve the accuracy of voter rolls while complying with applicable federal privacy standards governing Medicaid data, and decrease burdens on Medicaid applicants and agency staff.”

In the letter, Bennet wrote that Health First Colorado serves 1.4 million people who are “disproportionately people of color with poorer health outcomes than the general population,” the same population that has been found to have lower voter registration rates.

“Despite requirements in Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) that Medicaid state agencies assist beneficiaries to register to vote, researchers find that Medicaid enrollment negatively correlates with voter registration and voting. Existing efforts at Medicaid agencies to register enrollees and beneficiaries are insufficient,” Bennet wrote.

Bennet also referenced a March 2021 executive order from President Joe Biden that directs agencies to find more opportunities for voter registration. He is asking Brooks-LaSure to let states describe Medicaid-based AVR in their state plans and approve valid AVR state plan amendments.

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