By Scott Shafer, KQED
The floundering roll out of the federal government’s health care exchange has given Republicans plenty of reasons to criticize the Affordable Care Act. But setting aside the online train wreck of healthcare.gov and the cost of expanding health care to millions of Americans, there may also be political reasons the GOP hates Obamacare: Voter registration.
It goes back to the 1993 National Voter Registration Act -- a.k.a. the Motor Voter act. It requires that state agencies providing public assistance must also offer voter registration materials to anyone they help. The most recognized place this happens is the DMV, hence the nickname "Moter Voter." The Obama Administration says the law also applies to federally run exchanges in states (mostly with Republican governors) that decided against having their own online health insurance marketplace.
Republicans in Congress have been railing against this, although the issue has taken a back seat to other concerns, notably the technological shortcomings of healthcare.gov. But to quote conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Obamacare is really “about building a permanent, undefeatable, always-funded Democrat majority."
Surprisingly, California has never fully implemented Motor Voter. Pete Wilson was governor when the law was enacted and he objected to it being an “unfunded federal mandate.” A lot has changed since then. For starters, Californians can register to vote at the DMV as well as online, and last year State Senator Alex Padilla authored SB 35, which required that all state agencies designate a Motor Voter coordinator.