H.R. 2 (103rd): National Voter Registration Act of 1993
This was a vote to pass H.R. 2 (103rd) in the Senate.
It was not the final Senate vote on the bill. See the history of H.R. 2 (103rd) for further details.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) (52 U.S.C. §§ 20501–20511) (formerly 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973gg–1973gg-10), also known as the Motor Voter Act, is a United States federal law signed into law by President Bill Clinton on May 20, 1993, and which came into effect on January 1, 1995. The law was enacted under the Elections Clause of the United States Constitution. The law advances voting rights in the United States by requiring state governments to offer voter registration opportunities to any eligible person who applies for or renews a driver license or applies for public assistance along with requiring the United States Postal Service to mail election materials of a state as if the state is a nonprofit. The law requires states to register applicants that use a federal voter registration form to apply and prohibits states from removing registered voters from the voter rolls unless certain criteria are met.
The Act exempts from its requirements the states that have continuously, since March 11, 1993, not required voter registration for federal elections or that have offered Election Day voter registration (EDR) for federal general elections. Six states qualify for exemption from the Act: North Dakota (which does not require registration), Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Maine lost the exemption when it abolished EDR in 2011, although EDR was subsequently restored in that state.
This summary is from Wikipedia.
Source: Wikipedia
Totals
| All Votes | Democrats | Republicans | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yea | 63% |
62
|
57
|
5
|
| Nay | 37% |
37
|
0
|
37
|
| Not Voting |
1
|
0
|
1
|
|
Bill Passed. Simple Majority Required. Source: senate.gov.
The Yea votes represented 68% of the country’s population by apportioning each state’s population to its voting senators.
Ideology Vote Chart
Vote Details
“Aye” and “Yea” mean the same thing, and so do “No” and “Nay”. Congress uses different words in different sorts of votes.
The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.
All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.
Statistically Notable Votes
Statistically notable votes are the votes that are most surprising, or least predictable, given how other members of each voter’s party voted and other factors.
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Study Guide
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Members of Congress side together for many reasons beside being in the same political party, especially so for less prominent legislation or legislation specific to a certain region. What might have determined how the roll call came out in this case? Does it look like Members of Congress voted based on party, geography, or some other reason?
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GovTrack displays the percentage of the United States population represented by the yeas on some Senate votes just under the vote totals. We do this to highlight how the people of the United States are represented in the Senate. Since each state has two senators, but state populations vary significantly, the individuals living in each state have different Senate representation. For example, California’s population of near 40 million is given the same number of senators as Wyoming’s population of about 600,000.
Do the senators who voted yea represent a majority of the people of the United States? Does it matter?
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