What Happens When a Voter Moves?

When an election official receives information that a voter may have moved, it does not result in an immediate deletion. Instead, it triggers a formal verification process required by the NVRA and state laws. States use a variety of mechanisms to identify voters who might have moved. A common process is to match state voter rolls against the National Change of Address (NCOA) data provided by the United States Postal Service (USPS). The USPS maintains this list from information provided by people who move and forward their mail. States vary in how frequently they review this information from monthly checks in Colorado, to annual, and biennial checks in other states.

Election officials use multiple methods to identify voters who might have moved. Virginia, like many states, track mail from election offices to voters that are returned as undeliverable and flags those voters for later confirmation. Similarly, states such as Florida track voters whose jury notices indicate a change of address. Massachusetts performs an annual census or street list by mailing forms to households across the Commonwealth. Failure to return the form can result in placement on the inactive voter list.

Many election officials rely on data sharing agreements with other states. Some jurisdictions also incorporate commercial databases, such as credit agencies, as an additional check. According to DOJ guidance, Section 8 of the NVRA prohibits the use of information submitted by a third party to immediately cancel a voter’s registration. But the data can serve as an initial trigger to mail a confirmation card. Some states expressly permit the use of commercial data to identify voters who have moved (for example, Indiana and Tennessee). 

And several states use a lack of voting activity to identify voters who might have moved. States have a variety of time periods that they analyze for voter activity. Most states that use voting activity to trigger list maintenance use two or four years with only a few states using a five-year period of no voter activity.

If a potential move outside the jurisdiction is identified, an election official must send a notice to the voter. Voters then have the opportunity to respond to the notice. In some states, such as Iowa and Louisiana, voters are immediately moved to an inactive list when they receive this notice. In other states, voters have a period of time to respond to the notice. This can range from 14 days in Maryland and Rhode Island to 60 days in Delaware and Oklahoma. While these states all send notice to voters before or when the voter is made inactive, states, such as Georgia, send a second notice to voters before the voter is removed from the inactive list.

After notice is sent, voters are placed on an inactive list and this is another area where timelines differ from state to state. Aligning with the NVRA, the majority of states anchor the inactive period through the next two federal general elections. A subset of states rely on a fixed multi-year calendar that runs independently of election dates. 

Importantly, being inactive doesn’t mean that someone cannot vote. Federal law is clear that inactive voters remain qualified electors and can still vote. There is nuance though – some states, like Arizona, remove the voter from the active early voting list until the voter reconfirms their status.

Just as there is variation between the states, there is also variation within some states. Unlike standard mandatory NVRA compliance structures in most states, Maine’s framework treats the inactive designation and subsequent removal process as optional. Municipalities that choose not to maintain an inactive list are legally barred from removing voters who fail to respond to confirmation cards.

To prevent mass, systematic changes shortly before an election, federal law imposes a 90-day quiet period before federal elections. Many states have similar, corresponding state laws. States like Maine and Vermont, go beyond the federal quiet period and extend this to all elections.

Federal law allows voters to return to active status if they respond to the notice, vote, or appear to vote within the given period. Most states provide additional methods for voters to regain their active status, such as requesting a mail ballot (Rhode Island), signing a candidate petition (California), serving on a jury (Mississippi), filing a certificate of candidacy (Maryland), confirming the voter’s registration on the official state election website (California), or serving as active duty military (Mississippi).

If the voter does not return to active status, list-maintenance processes eventually reach their final step: removal. If a voter has not responded to the notice or appeared to vote (and, if necessary, corrected the voter’s record), election officials may remove the voter from the voting rolls.

Most state laws stick close to the NVRA’s language permitting a state to remove the voter on the day immediately following the second federal general election. But some states have additional timelines for these removals. Indiana, for one, requires the county voter registration office to cancel these inactive voters thirty days after the second general election. Meanwhile, New Mexico directs the board of registration to execute cancellations during its review, no later than March 15 following the general election.

Although voter list maintenance is often discussed as a single process, our research shows that it is better understood as a collection of state-specific systems operating within a common federal framework. The NVRA establishes broad guardrails, but states retain substantial discretion over how they identify potential movers, notify voters, provide opportunities for status restoration, and ultimately update registration records. Understanding these differences is essential for researchers, election administrators, judges, policymakers, and voters seeking to understand how election administration works across the United States. By mapping these timelines state by state, the ELP hopes to make a complex area of election administration more accessible and easier to compare across jurisdictions.