Registry entry

United States National Mail Voter Registration Form (EAC)

Register to vote, report a change of name or address, or register with a political party in a U.S. State using the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's National Mail Voter Registration Form — a single federal form, prescribed under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), that most States are required to accept by mail or in person. The federal portion of the form (Boxes 1-9 and Boxes A-D) is uniform nationwide; a handful of items (the acceptable ID number, whether party choice or race/ethnicity are collected, the registration deadline, and the eligibility oath) are governed by each State's own instructions, which this document models as State-dependent rather than enumerating all 50 States plus D.C. and the territories. Alabama, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Wyoming each apply this form differently or not at all (item 6). This document models the applicant inputs and the resulting eligibility branch; it does not submit the form, and the live eac.gov source and the applicant's own State instructions are always authoritative (see verification).

Registry entry

us/eac/voter-registration-national-mail-form

Jurisdiction
United States · national
Version
1.0.0
Verification
draft
Authority
U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Authoritative source National Mail Voter Registration Form and instructions booklet, OMB Control No. 3265-0015 (https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/eac_assets/1/6/Federal_Voter_Registration_ENG.pdf)

Machine access

Schema document
registry/us/eac/voter-registration-national-mail-form/1.0.0/schema.jsonapplication/schema+json
Verification record
registry/us/eac/voter-registration-national-mail-form/1.0.0/VERIFICATION.mdtext/markdown
Registry catalog
registry/index.jsonone record per schema id

Field reference

40 fields across 5 steps, read from the published schema.json, with names, types, requiredness, and validation as the document states them. The live government form remains the authoritative source.

Citizenship and age eligibility

  • isUSCitizen boolean required

    Top-of-form gating question. Federal law makes it illegal to falsely claim U.S. citizenship to register to vote.

  • willBe18ByElectionDay boolean required

    Top-of-form gating question. Some States permit registration prior to age 18 under State-specific rules described in that State's instructions.

Name and address (Boxes 1-3)

  • courtesyTitle enum optional

    Courtesy title, Box 1.

    enum: Mr | Mrs | Miss | Ms
  • lastName string required

    Do not use nicknames or initials.

    length: 1–100classification: sensitive-pii
  • firstName string required

    Do not use nicknames or initials.

    length: 1–100classification: sensitive-pii
  • middleNames string optional

    Middle name(s)

    length: 0–100classification: sensitive-pii
  • nameSuffix enum optional

    Name suffix

    enum: Jr | Sr | II | III | IV
  • homeAddressStreet string required

    Legal residential address. Do not use a mailing address if different, and do not use a P.O. box or a rural route without a box number (see State instructions for route-number rules). If there is no street address, see hasNoStreetAddress/ruralLocationDescription instead.

    length: 1–120classification: sensitive-pii
  • homeAddressAptOrLot string optional

    Home address — apt. or lot #

    length: 0–40
  • homeAddressCity string required

    Home address — city/town

    length: 1–80classification: sensitive-pii
  • homeAddressState string required

    Two-letter USPS State/territory abbreviation, e.g. CA, NY, TX. Determines which State's item 6/7/8/9 instructions and deadline apply. North Dakota does not have voter registration; Wyoming law does not permit mail registration; New Hampshire and Wisconsin municipal clerks accept this form only as a request for their own absentee/online registration process.

    pattern
  • homeAddressZip string required

    Home address — ZIP code

    patternclassification: sensitive-pii
  • hasMailingAddressDifferentFromHome boolean required

    If there is no home address in Box 2 (see hasNoStreetAddress), a mailing address is mandatory here instead of optional.

  • mailingAddressStreet string optional

    Mailing address (street)

    length: 0–120classification: sensitive-pii
  • mailingAddressCity string optional

    Mailing address — city/town

    length: 0–80
  • mailingAddressState string optional

    Mailing address — State

    pattern
  • mailingAddressZip string optional

    Mailing address — ZIP code

    patternclassification: sensitive-pii

Date of birth, ID number, party, race (Boxes 4-8)

  • dateOfBirth date required

    Full date, YYYY-MM-DD. Must not be today's date.

    classification: sensitive-pii
  • telephoneNumber string optional

    In international E.164 format, e.g. +12025551234. Requested by most States in case of questions about the application.

    patternclassification: sensitive-pii
  • idNumberType enum required

    Federal law requires an identification number from each registrant. drivers_license_or_state_id = the driver's license or non-driver State ID number for the home-address State; last_4_ssn = last 4 digits of the applicant's Social Security number, used only if the applicant has no driver's license or State ID; none_assigned_by_state = the applicant has neither, in which case the State assigns a number ('NONE' is written on the paper form). See item 6 in the applicant's State instructions for State-specific rules.

    enum: drivers_license_or_state_id | last_4_ssn | none_assigned_by_state
  • idNumber string optional

    The driver's license/State ID number, or the last 4 digits of the Social Security number, per idNumberType. Format (length, alphanumeric vs. numeric) is State-specific; see item 6 in the applicant's State instructions.

    length: 1–20classification: sensitive-pii
  • partyChoice string optional

    Only meaningful in States that register voters by party (see item 7 in the applicant's State instructions); leave blank or write 'No Party' for no preference. Do not write 'independent' if 'no party' is meant, since it may be confused with an actual party name in some States. Some States (e.g. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona) do not use this field at all.

    length: 0–100
  • raceOrEthnicGroup enum optional

    Collected by only a few States to administer the federal Voting Rights Act (see item 8 in the applicant's State instructions); most States leave this blank.

    enum: 7 valuesclassification: sensitive-pii

Name change, prior address, rural map, ID proof (Boxes A-C)

  • isNameChange boolean required

    Gates Box A (previous name).

  • previousFullName string optional

    Full name before the change (Box A)

    length: 0–200classification: sensitive-pii
  • isFirstTimeRegisteringAtThisAddress boolean required

    Gates Box B (previous registration address).

  • previousRegistrationAddressStreet string optional

    Previous registration address — street (or route and box number) (Box B)

    length: 0–120classification: sensitive-pii
  • previousRegistrationAddressCity string optional

    Previous registration address — city/town/county (Box B)

    length: 0–80
  • previousRegistrationAddressState string optional

    Previous registration address — State (Box B)

    pattern
  • previousRegistrationAddressZip string optional

    Previous registration address — ZIP code (Box B)

    pattern
  • hasNoStreetAddress boolean required

    Gates Box C, the paper form's hand-drawn location map.

  • ruralLocationDescription string optional

    The paper form asks for a hand-drawn map (nearest crossroads/streets marked with an X for the home, dots for nearby landmarks such as schools, churches, or stores). This field captures the equivalent written description for an agent-mediated submission; the applicant (or someone helping on paper) must still draw the map on the physical form actually mailed in.

    length: 0–500
  • identificationProofAttached file optional

    Federal law (HAVA) requires a first-time voter who registers by mail to show ID the first time they vote; attaching a copy in advance (a current photo ID, or a current utility bill/bank statement/government check/paycheck/government document showing name and address) can satisfy this ahead of time. Submit only a COPY, never an original.

Assistance, oath, and signature (Box D, Box 9)

  • signedByApplicant boolean required

    Answer false if the applicant was unable to sign and another person filled out and signed the form on their behalf (Box D). Answer true if the applicant signed personally (or made their own mark).

  • assistantName string optional

    Name of person who helped the applicant (Box D)

    length: 0–200classification: sensitive-pii
  • assistantAddress string optional

    Address of person who helped the applicant (Box D)

    length: 0–200classification: sensitive-pii
  • assistantPhone string optional

    In international E.164 format, e.g. +12025551234.

    patternclassification: sensitive-pii
  • oathAffirmed boolean required

    Confirms the applicant is a U.S. citizen, meets their State's eligibility requirements and any oath required, and that the information provided is true under penalty of perjury.

  • signatureFullName string required

    Full name signed, or a mark if the applicant cannot write, per Box 9. If signedByApplicant is false, this is the mark/name the applicant themselves provided, with assistance recorded in Box D.

    length: 0–200
  • signatureDate date required

    Date signed

Verification record

This file is the source-review record for this document version, per the manual-source-review-v1 practice.

Current claim

  • status: draft
  • verification.method: manual-source-review-v1
  • verification.lastVerifiedAt: 2026-07-04

The document was derived from and cross-checked against the official/primary sources below. The full field-by-field comparison the practice requires has been completed once against those sources (this record), but not yet by a second, independent reviewer — so status remains draft, not verified.

Sources examined

  • Document (id, version): us/eac/voter-registration-national-mail-form / 1.0.0
  • Spec version: GovSchema 0.3.0
  • Authority: U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), a federal independent agency created by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which publishes and maintains this form under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
  • Primary sources:
  • Official form id: none printed on the form itself; identified by its OMB Control No. 3265-0015 and referred to by the EAC as the "National Mail Voter Registration Form."
  • Extraction method: the PDF's own AcroForm field annotations were read programmatically with pdfjs-dist (page.getAnnotations()), giving the exact field labels (alternativeText) and checkbox/radio export values (e.g. TXT-0055 / "Courtesy Titles" / Mr, Mrs., Miss, Ms.) — the same technique used for prior encrypted/complex-AcroForm sources (see memory: pdfjs-dist for encrypted AcroForms). The General Instructions, Application Instructions, and five sample State Instructions pages (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Wisconsin, Wyoming) were read as plain text layer output, verbatim, not summarized secondhand.
  • Retrieved / reviewed: 2026-07-04.
  • Reviewer: GovSchema Engineering (Standards Engineer, initial authoring source-review).

What was confirmed against the source

| Source element | Field(s) | |---|---| | Top-of-form citizenship/age gating questions | isUSCitizen, willBe18ByElectionDay | | Box 1 — Name (title, last/first/middle, suffix) | courtesyTitle, lastName, firstName, middleNames, nameSuffix | | Box 2 — Home address | homeAddressStreet, homeAddressAptOrLot, homeAddressCity, homeAddressState, homeAddressZip | | Box 3 — Mailing address if different | hasMailingAddressDifferentFromHome, mailingAddressStreet, mailingAddressCity, mailingAddressState, mailingAddressZip | | Box 4 — Date of birth | dateOfBirth | | Box 5 — Telephone number (optional) | telephoneNumber | | Box 6 — ID number, and the State-varying DL/State-ID vs. last-4-SSN vs. "NONE" pattern (confirmed identical across all five sampled States: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA) | idNumberType, idNumber | | Box 7 — Choice of party, and its State-varying applicability (required in none of the five sampled States; several explicitly "do not complete") | partyChoice | | Box 8 — Race or ethnic group, and its State-varying applicability (all five sampled States: "leave blank" except Alabama, which requests but does not require it) | raceOrEthnicGroup | | Box 9 — Oath, signature, and date | oathAffirmed, signatureFullName, signatureDate | | Box A — Previous name (name-change applicants) | isNameChange, previousFullName | | Box B — Previous registration address | isFirstTimeRegisteringAtThisAddress, previousRegistrationAddressStreet/City/State/Zip | | Box C — Rural/no-street-address map | hasNoStreetAddress, ruralLocationDescription | | Box D — Assistance for an applicant unable to sign | signedByApplicant, assistantName, assistantAddress, assistantPhone | | General Instructions — "First Time Voters Who Register by Mail" (HAVA ID requirement) | identificationProofAttached | | General Instructions — North Dakota has no registration; Wyoming does not permit mail registration; New Hampshire/Wisconsin accept only as a request for their own process | homeAddressState description; applicant_name_and_address step transitions (state-not-supported / state-alternate-process-required) |

What remains out of scope

  • The per-State instructions for all 50 States, D.C., and the territories (24 pages of the source booklet) are not modeled field-by-field; only a 5-State sample (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California) plus the four named exceptions (North Dakota, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Wisconsin) were read verbatim to confirm the pattern item 6/7/8 follow. Per-State registration deadlines, felony-disqualification rules, and the exact Box 9 oath wording are State-specific and are not encoded as data, consistent with how gb/dvla/international-driving-permit leaves a country-dependent lookup table (150+ destination countries) as applicant-supplied choice rather than enumerated data.
  • No mapping.json — the source is a static, downloadable PDF with no live web form/screen to map selectors against.
  • This document does not model the separate Federal Post Card Application (for military/overseas citizens) — the booklet explicitly directs that population elsewhere ("Use the Federal Postcard Application available to you from military bases, American embassies, or consular offices").

Next review

nextReviewBy: 2027-01-04, or sooner if the EAC revises the form (it is updated periodically; the sampled State-instruction pages carry individual "Updated" dates from 2006 through 2025) or a State's item 6/7/8 treatment changes.

View the raw record (VERIFICATION.md)

Version history

  • 1.0.0 draft latest this page has verification record schema.json

Independent and non-affiliated

GovSchema is an independent, open-source project. This reference is not produced, reviewed, or endorsed by U.S. Election Assistance Commission or any government. The authoritative source is always the live government form and its official instructions.