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Purges
By Jonathan Brater – 11/03/11
In September, we told you about Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s attempt to prevent thousands of duly registered Colorado citizens from voting in this November’s mail ballot election merely because they failed to vote in a single election. Fortunately, county clerk and recorders in Denver and Pueblo Counties took a principled stand against Secretary Gessler’s wrongheaded approach, and Denver won the right to send mail ballots to all duly registered voters. Other counties followed suit.
The reports of early returns are in, and the result is a huge win for voters and a decisive blow against Secretary Gessler’s policy of disenfranchisement. Media reports indicate that as of Monday night, in Pueblo County, an astonishing 16 percent of the County’s approximately 17,000 “inactive voters” had cast ballots: a total of roughly 2,700 voters. This represented nearly 9 percent of all votes cast in Pueblo County. In Pueblo’s District Two, an area with a disproportionately high number of low-income citizens, inactive voters constituted 23 percent of the total voting electorate. The statewide results, when available, will likely show that thousands more inactive voters cast mail ballots.
Had Secretary Gessler’s attempt been successful, none of these duly registered voters would have been allowed to participate in the election by voting mail ballots. And indeed, due in part to Secretary Gessler’s efforts, thousands of registered voters in other counties that did not send mail ballots to inactive voters likely were disenfranchised on Tuesday.
The dispute over inactive voters is not over. With the 2012 election looming, Secretary Gessler has indicated that he will continue to press for restrictive voting laws that would prevent registered voters who miss a single election from participating in elections unless they first submit to an administrative process to “reactivate” their status. The 2011 election turnout, welcome as it is for the citizens of Colorado, also places in sharp relief the stakes of the ongoing war on voting. Hopefully, these election results will show Secretary Gessler the folly of his policy. Either way, those fighting for free and open elections must remain vigilant.
Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Ballot Access, Election Day Issues, Provisional Ballots, Purges
By Wendy R. Weiser – 04/27/10
A minor partisan battle has erupted in Tennessee about the rules for purging the voter rolls.
According to local news reports, earlier this year, local election officials in two counties reviewed their records to identify registered individuals whose initial voter registration applications were "deficient" in some respect. A registration was deemed "deficient" not only if it showed a voter to be ineligible (in fact, there are no reports of ineligible registrants), but also if there was a minor omission on the form, such as the failure to check a box. The result: more than one in five voters in those counties—many of them long-time voters—received letters questioning their registrations.
After a brouhaha involving the family members of a local candidate, it looks like these voters will not be purged after all. But the controversy rages on, shifting from local election offices to the state legislature, both houses of which are considering legislation to prohibit officials from purging a previously-accepted registration based on a minor omission unless there was fraud or a missing signature.
I have previously written about how the federal Voting Rights Act already prohibits state officials from denying individuals the right to register or vote based on minor errors or omission in paperwork. When a registration has already been accepted, officials must also follow the National Voter Registration Act—and the Constitution’s Due Process Clause—before removing the voter’s name from the rolls. In other words, the rule proposed in the pending Tennessee legislation is already required by federal law. (Federal law also likely prohibits purging previously-registered voters from the rolls solely based on the fact that they did not sign their initial voter registration applications.)
While the pending bill may resolve the current voter roll controversy, it leaves the broader problem unaddressed. Tennessee’s "deficient" voter registration problem is a product of two general deficiencies with our current voter registration system: first, the system is based on paper applications, and second, the system relies on individual voters’ initiative to make sure that the voter rolls are complete and accurate. Both of these features are outdated and bound to lead to problems [pdf].
A voter registration system for the twenty-first century would largely do away with paper applications—and all the errors, confusion, and lost information they cause—and would rely on government officials (instead of millions of individuals) to use existing government records to get the voter rolls right. By using reliable information from other government lists to register consenting eligible citizens and to update the rolls, a modern system would largely eliminate the problem of incomplete or inaccurate voter registrations. And by providing fail-safe mechanisms to ensure that every eligible voter can check and correct her registration record up through Election Day, a modern system would largely eliminate the problem of vote denial because of faulty voter roll purges. In other words, Tennessee can have its cake and eat it too—ensuring accurate voter rolls while preventing unwarranted disenfranchisement—and prevent this debate from resurfacing in the future, by modernizing its voter registration system. That is why more and more states are moving in this direction—that, and the millions of dollars of savings each year.
Another benefit of modernizing the voter registration system is that it would remove politics from what should be a purely administrative function. Our current error-laden and discretion-filled voter registration system is far too prone to political battles, with Democrats accusing Republicans of using the system to suppress the vote and Republicans accusing Democrats of using it to promote voter fraud. Tennessee is a case in point: one of the Democratic sponsors of the pending purge legislation apparently blamed partisanship for the recent letters to voters, accusing Republicans of trying to knock Democrats off the rolls. It’s time to take the politics—and the errors—out of the voter registration system and to move into the 21st century. Rather than tinkering around the edges, Tennessee—and the rest of the states—should adopt broader legislation to modernization the registration system.
The Brennan Center sent letters to state and local election officials concerning the purge situation.
The letters are available here:
Letter to Mark Goins, Coordinator for Elections in the Division of Elections of the Tennessee Department of State [pdf]
Letter to Mark Ward, Election Administrator in Benton County [pdf]
Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Allegations of Voter Fraud, Purges, Voter Registration Modernization
By Wendy Weiser & Margaret Chen – 07/10/09
Cross-posted on The Huffington Post
We talk about promoting
democracy around the world, but neglect the infrastructure of our own
democracy. This is most visible in our antiquated voter registration
system.
Voter registration is the gateway to voting. But our registration
system relies on 19th century practices, and, leaves millions of
eligible voters out of the political process. Recent Census reports show that 30% of eligible Americans aren't registered to vote. Most major democracies do far better; a recent Brennan Center study
of voter registration systems around the world shows that Canada,
France, Germany, and Great Britain each register well over 90% of their
eligible citizens.
Voter apathy does not explain our low registration rates. In the
2008 elections, 2 to 3 million eligible Americans attempted to vote,
but were thwarted by voter registration problems; an additional 9
million were unable to register because of registration deadlines or
residency rules, Professor Stephen Ansolabehere of Harvard and MIT testified before the Senate Rules Committee this year. Voter protection hotlines consistently say voter registration is the problem would-be voters report most often. And election officials report that registration problems are the number one reason that provisional ballots are not counted.
So why do we lag so far behind other countries in voter
registration? Unlike other major democracies, the United States places
the onus of voter registration on individual citizens. Plus, our system
is based principally on paper forms, which compounds the problem. Every
voter, every time they move, must fill out new forms which must then be
delivered to appropriate election officials, deciphered, processed, and
entered into a database; the forms typically arrive together in huge
volumes, right before an election. This system is ripe for error,
duplication, and waste; worse, the system ends up disenfranchising
millions of eligible voters.
It doesn't have to be this way. Our study of twenty voter
registration systems around the world -- the most comprehensive such
study to date -- finds that in nearly every democracy surveyed,
government helps assure that every eligible citizen is registered to
vote. Only four countries other than the United States -- the Bahamas,
Belize, Burundi, and Mexico -- place the burden of voter registration
on individual citizens.
Other democracies use a variety of methods to register voters, but
the most common method -- and one which is readily adoptable here -- is
by compiling lists of unregistered eligible citizens from other
government lists. Canada, which has a decentralized federal system
similar to ours, automatically adds every 18-year-old and other
citizens to its voter rolls using information from other government
agencies. And, it continually updates voter records with data from
other government agencies, a practice followed in several other
countries. To insure government mistakes don't prevent any one from
voting, Canada has a procedure for citizens to register or update
registrations on Election Day. Less than 7% of Canadians are
unregistered, in contrast with 30% of Americans, and the vast majority
of the records on the Canadian voter rolls -- unlike ours -- are
accurate and up-to-date.
This common-sense approach -- automatic registration, permanent
registration through electronic updates, and an Election Day list
correction procedure -- would add 50 to 65 million eligible voters to
the registration rolls here; it would also save taxpayers money and
ensure our voter rolls are more accurate and less susceptible to fraud
and manipulation. Canada and Australia both substantially reduced their
election costs when they modernized their voter rolls -- and, they
recouped their low transition costs almost immediately.
Can this be achieved in the United States? Absolutely -- and it
wouldn't even take that long. States already have the necessary
infrastructure -- centralized voter registration databases and
government agency lists
capable of electronically sharing information. With a minor upgrade to
our registration system, states can use reliable and accurate
information in other government databases to automatically add eligible
citizens to the voter lists and keep their information current.
That is how many other countries build their voter rolls, and it is
also largely how the U.S. Selective Service System creates its list.
Fail-safe procedures before and on Election Day will ensure that any
government mistakes are caught and corrected.
There is the political will to do this: election officials and political actors of all stripes support voter registration modernization. In the June 25th issue of The Washington Post,
the chief lawyers of both the Obama and McCain campaigns editorialized
in favor of modernizing the registration system -- a reform that
addresses the concerns of both major parties. The Senate Rules
Committee, chaired by Senator Chuck Schumer, has already held a hearing
on the problems with the voter registration system. Now is the time for
Congress to take the next step to solve those problems and make voter
registration modernization a priority this year.
Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Purges, Voter Registration Drives, Voting Technology
By Lawrence Norden – 04/23/09
Yesterday, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner released to Governor Ted Strickland and the Ohio General Assembly a "blueprint for enhancing Ohio's elections." This blueprint (click here to download) is the culmination of work that began immediately after the 2008 election, when Secretary Brunner convened the first Ohio Elections Summit, which I chaired. The bipartisan Ohio Association of Election Officials has expressed support for Secretary Brunner's proposal, and I'm hopeful that it will move the ball closer toward important improvements in Ohio election administration and law.
The December Elections Summit called by Secretary Brunner, in addition to a later conference in March, brought together voters, non-partisan and partisan election experts, election officials and state legislators, of both political parties. These events were deliberative and substantive. As I've blogged before, I would very much like to see more Secretaries of State follow Jennifer Brunner's lead and adopt similar processes in their states.
Read the rest of this story ...
Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Election Day Issues, Other Voter List Issues, Purges, Voter ID, Voter Registration Drives, Voting Technology
By Lawrence Norden – 03/11/09
In December, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner called together some of the country's leading election experts and voting rights advocates, as well as a bipartisan group of state legislators and election officials, to review the 2008 election and offer suggestions for reforming the state's election policy. She asked me to Chair this summit and to prepare a report summarizing the views of those who participated, providing relevant background and data where needed. She called this the "first step" in a process to solicit the views of Ohio voters and experts as she developed her reform agenda.
Read the rest of this story ...
Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Election Day Issues, Other Voter List Issues, Purges, Voter ID, Voter Registration Drives, Voting Technology
By Maggie Barron – 10/16/08
Joe the Plumber appeared in last night's debate as a symbol of Ohio's "everyman." He is also now a symbol of the "everyman" whose name is misspelled in government databases. Or, for voter-fraud enthusiasts, an example of yet another type of voter who should be challenged or removed from the rolls.
After his debut on the national stage as a skeptical swing voter, reporters checking up on Joe could not find his voter registration record. That's because his last name, Wurzelbacher, is misspelled in state databases.
According to the latest ruling from Ohio, the 200,000 newly registered voters whose names do not match government databases will have their names turned over to local election officials, where they will be at risk of being illegally removed from registration lists, or challenged at the polls on Election Day.
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Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Other Voter List Issues, Purges, Voter Registration Drives
By Adam Skaggs – 10/07/08
The voter registration deadlines of most states have either just passed or will come in the next two weeks, and there has been an unprecedented surge in registrations across the country. For most observers, this is evidence of a renewed public interest in participating in our democracy. Others, unfortunately, see the prospect of higher voter turnout as a threat—and are working to keep voters from registering and voting.
The efforts to suppress voting range from challenging the eligibility of voters whose homes have been foreclosed to scaring college students out of registering where they go to school. And, as we've written previously, efforts are under way in a number of states to use trivial imperfections in paperwork to keep voters off the registration rolls or kick them off when they are successfully registered. One way citizens are blocked from casting ballots that count is through so-called "no match, no vote" policies.
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Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Allegations of Voter Fraud, No Match, No Vote, Other Voter List Issues, Purges, Voter Registration Drives
By James Sample – 10/03/08
Former Montana State Representative Kevin Furey, a First Lieutenant in the Army Reserves, is presently in New Jersey preparing to return to Iraq. The reward for his service? Try disenfranchisement. At least that's what it could be if an error-laden effort by the Montana Republican Party to purge the voter rolls were to go forward.
As is too often the case with targeted, partisan efforts to challenge voters and get them purged from the rolls, an effort by the Montana Republican Party this week ostensibly aimed voter fraud appears to be, in the words of Matt Singer of the non-partisan Forward Montana, actually little more than an effort to "suppress the vote, targeting counties with large Indian, student, and low-income populations."
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Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Challenges, Caging & Vote Suppression, Other Voter List Issues, Purges, Voter Registration Drives
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