Bennet Urges Biden Administration to Support Colorado's Efforts to Automatically Register Voters through Medicaid

Press Release

Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and CMS to support Colorado's efforts to implement Medicaid-based Automatic Voter Registration (AVR). Even though the state legislature authorized Medicaid-based AVR in 2019, CMS must approve Colorado's State Plan Amendment (SPA) to move forward. Lack of guidance from CMS has prevented any state, including Colorado, from implementing Medicaid-based AVR thus far, despite its potential to improve voter registration and participation rates nationwide.

"Medicaid AVR has the potential to enhance civic participation and voter registration opportunities for low-income citizens," wrote Bennet. "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."

Health First Colorado, the state's Medicaid program, serves more than 1.4 million low-income Coloradans who are disproportionately people of color with poorer health outcomes than the general population. Medicaid enrollees also often face voting challenges, such as lower rates of voter registration.

Bennet is asking CMS to take two steps to help Coloradans and people across the country who are enrolled in Medicaid register to vote:

Permit states to describe AVR processes in their Medicaid state plans, allowing CMS to use the state plan amendment (SPA) process to review proposed AVR models for compliance with applicable federal requirements; and
Approve AVR SPAs that include appropriate safeguards for applicants and beneficiaries to maximize registration rates of eligible individuals, while preventing voter registration of applicants who are ineligible to vote.

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