public-service · NVRA U.S. Code citations
Old and New U.S. Code Citations on an NVRA Regulation
The Title 52 heading, Title 42 authority line, and cited reclassification note in the referenced federal records.
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Updated: Sources: 3
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What matters now
- The cited regulation displays both a Title 52 heading citation and a Title 42 authority citation.
- The cited U.S. Code section includes an editorial-reclassification and renumbering note for that section.
- One current federal regulation uses the new Title 52 citation in its heading but the old Title 42 citation in its authority line.
- The U.S. Code's own text notes some sections were formerly classified under Title 42 before this renumbering.
- Older Title 42 citations, such as one on an EAC testing-lab page, still appear in current federal materials.
The cited eCFR regulation displays a Title 52 citation in its heading and a Title 42 citation in its authority line. A separate cited U.S. Code section includes a note that it was formerly classified in Title 42 before editorial reclassification and renumbering. This article reports those displayed citations and notes only.
This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.
Key points
- The current federal regulation governing the National Voter Registration Act is titled with the new citation: “PART 9428—NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT (52 U.S.C. 20503 et seq.)” (eCFR Part 9428).
- That same regulation’s own authority line still uses the old citation: “Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1973gg-1 et seq., 15532” (eCFR Part 9428).
- A section within that same part also refers to the law as “42 U.S.C. 1973gg-1 et seq. (“NVRA”)“ (eCFR Part 9428).
- The U.S. Code’s own published text documents this kind of renumbering for a related section: it “was formerly classified to section 15502 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section” (U.S. Code Title 52, Section 21102).
- Old-style Title 42 citations still appear in other current federal materials, such as a U.S. Election Assistance Commission page referencing “Section 231(b) of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 (42 U.S.C. §15371(b))” (EAC Voting System Test Laboratories page).
Two citation styles in one regulation
The regulation’s heading reads: “PART 9428—NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT (52 U.S.C. 20503 et seq.).” Its authority line reads: “Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1973gg-1 et seq., 15532.” A section in the same part also refers to “42 U.S.C. 1973gg-1 et seq. ("NVRA")” (eCFR Part 9428).
The Code’s Reclassification Note
The U.S. Code’s published text documents this same kind of reclassification for a related, differently-numbered section. A note attached to that section states: “Section was formerly classified to section 15502 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section” (U.S. Code Title 52, Section 21102). This is an editorial note built into the official Code text itself, illustrating the same kind of editorial reclassification described above: provisions once numbered under Title 42 could be moved — as a matter of how the Code is organized and printed — into the newer Title 52, which groups voting and elections law together. The note does not describe a change to the underlying law; it describes where that section is now printed and numbered within the Code.
Where Old Citations Persist
Because this renumbering was editorial rather than a rewrite of the underlying statutes, documents written or last updated before the move can still cite the old Title 42 numbers. A U.S. Election Assistance Commission page on voting system testing, for example, currently cites “Section 231(b) of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 (42 U.S.C. §15371(b))” (EAC Voting System Test Laboratories page). A reader who encounters that citation alongside a Title 52 citation for a related provision is seeing the same underlying pattern: an older reference that predates, or was simply never updated to reflect, the Title 52 reclassification. This is a citation and bibliographic pattern only — it does not address whether any specific old-form Title 42 citation is legally defective, and nothing in the sources reviewed here states that an old-style citation fails to identify the law or is otherwise invalid.