Voter Purging: The Right's Strategy to Win Elections

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Instead of the slogan, "Get Out and Vote!" the Right's slogan is, "Take Away the Poor's Vote!"

By Myrna Pérez

Voter registration lists, also called voter rolls, are the gateway to voting. A citizen typically cannot cast a vote that will count unless her name appears on the voter registration rolls. Yet state and local officials regularly remove—or "purge"—citizens from voter rolls. In fact, thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia reported purging more than 13 million voters from registration rolls between 2004 and 2006. Purges, if done properly, are an important way to ensure that voter rolls are dependable, accurate, and up-to-date. Precise and carefully conducted purges can remove duplicate names, and people who have moved, died, or are otherwise ineligible. Far too frequently, however, eligible, registered citizens show up to vote and discover their names have been removed from the voter lists. States maintain voter rolls in an inconsistent and unaccountable manner. Officials strike voters from the rolls through a process that is shrouded in secrecy, prone to error, and vulnerable to manipulation.

While the lack of transparency in purge practices precludes a precise figure of the number of those erroneously purged, we do know that purges have been conducted improperly before. In 2004, for example, Florida planned to remove 48,000 "suspected felons" from its voter rolls. Many of those identified were in fact eligible to vote. The flawed process generated a list of 22,000 African Americans to be purged, but only 61 voters with Hispanic surnames, notwithstanding Florida's sizable Hispanic population. Under pressure from voting rights groups, Florida ordered officials to stop using the purge list. Although this purge was uncovered and mostly stopped before it was completed, other improper purges may go undetected and unremedied.

The secret and inconsistent manner in which purges are conducted make it difficult, if not impossible, to know exactly how many voters are stricken from voting lists erroneously. And when purges are made public, they often reveal serious problems. Here are a few examples from this year:

• In Mississippi earlier this year, a local election official discovered that another official had wrongly purged 10,000 voters from her home computer just a week before the presidential primary.
• In Muscogee, Georgia this year, a county official purged 700 people from the voter lists, supposedly because they were ineligible to vote due to criminal convictions. The list included people who had never even received a parking ticket.
• In Louisiana, including areas hit hard by hurricanes, officials purged approximately 21,000 voters, ostensibly for registering to vote in another state, without sufficient voter protections.

Findings

This report provides one of the first systematic examinations of the chaotic and largely unseen world of voter purges. In a detailed study focusing on twelve states, we identified three problematic practices with voter purges across the country:

Purges rely on error-ridden lists. States regularly attempt to purge voter lists of ineligible voters or duplicate registration records, but the lists that states use as the basis for purging are often riddled with errors. For example, some states purge their voter lists based on the Social Security Administration's Death Master File, a database that even the Social Security Administration admits includes people who are still alive. Even though Hilde Stafford, a Wappingers Falls, NY resident, was still alive and voted, the master death index lists her date of death as June 15, 1997. As another example, when a member of a household files a change of address for herself in the United States Postal Service's National Change of Address database, it sometimes has the effect of changing the addresses of all members of that household. Voters who are eligible to vote are wrongly stricken from the rolls because of problems with underlying source lists.

Voters are purged secretly and without notice. None of the states investigated in this report statutorily require election officials to provide advance public notice of a systematic purge. Additionally, with the exception of registrants believed to have changed addresses, many states do not notify individual voters before purging them. In large part, states that do provide individualized notice do not provide such notice for all classes of purge candidates. For example, our research revealed that it is rare for states to provide notice when a registrant is believed to be deceased. Without proper notice to affected individuals, an erroneously purged voter will likely not be able to correct the error before Election Day. Without public notice of an impending purge, the public will not be able to detect improper purges or to hold their election officials accountable for more accurate voter list maintenance.

Bad "matching" criteria leaves voters vulnerable to manipulated purges. Many voter purges are conducted with problematic techniques that leave ample room for abuse and manipulation. State statutes rely on the discretion of election officials to identify registrants for removal. Far too often, election officials believe they have "matched" two voters, when they are actually looking at the records of two distinct individuals with similar identifying information. These cases of mistaken identity cause eligible voters to be wrongly removed from the rolls. The infamous Florida purge of 2000—conservative estimates place the number of wrongfully purged voters close to 12,000—was generated in part by bad matching criteria. Florida registrants were purged from the rolls if 80 percent of the letters of their last names were the same as those of persons with criminal convictions. Those wrongly purged included Reverend Willie D. Whiting Jr., who, under the match ing criteria, was considered the same person as Willie J. Whiting. Without specific guidelines for or limitations on the authority of election officials conducting purges, eligible voters are regularly made unnecessarily vulnerable.

Insufficient oversight leaves voters vulnerable to manipulated purges. Insufficient oversight permeates the purge process beyond just the issue of matching. For example, state statutes often rely on the discretion of election officials to identify registrants for removal and to initiate removal procedures. In Washington, the failure to deliver a number of delineated mailings, including precinct reassignment notices, ballot applications, and registration acknowledgment notices, triggers the mailing of address confirmation notices, which then sets in motion the process for removal on account of change of address. Two Washington counties and the Secretary of State, however, reported that address confirmation notices were sent when any mail was returned as undeliverable, not just those delineated in state statute. Since these statutes rarely tend to specify limitations on the authority of election officials to purge registrants, insufficient oversight leaves room for election officials to deviate from what the state law provides and may make voters vulnerable to poor, lax, or irresponsible decision-making.

Policy Recommendations

No effective national standard governs voter purges; in fact, methods vary from state to state and even from county to county. A voter's risk of being purged depends in part on where in the state he or she lives. The lack of consistent rules and procedures means that this risk is unpredictable and difficult to guard against. While some variation is inevitable, every American should benefit from basic protections against erroneous purges.

Based on our review of purge practices and statutes in a number of jurisdictions, we make the following policy recommendations to reduce the occurrence of erroneous purges and protect eligible voters from erroneous purges.

A. Transparency and Accountability for Purges

States should:

• Develop and publish uniform, non-discriminatory rules for purges.
• Provide public notice of an impending purge. Two weeks before any county-wide or state-wide purge, states should announce the purge and explain how it is to be conducted. Individual voters must be notified and given the opportunity to correct any errors or omissions, or demonstrate eligibility before they are stricken from the rolls.
• Develop and publish rules for an individual to prevent or remedy her erroneous inclusion in an impending purge. Eligible citizens should have a clear way to restore their names to voter rolls.
• Stop using failure to vote as a trigger for a purge. States should send address confirmation notices only when they believe a voter has moved.
• Develop directives and criteria with respect to the authority to purge voters. The removal of any record should require authorization by at least two officials.
• Preserve purged voter registration records.
• Make purge lists publicly available.

B. Strict Criteria for the Development of Purge Lists

States should:

• Ensure a high degree of certainty that names on a purge list belong there. Purge lists should be reviewed multiple times to ensure that only ineligible voters are included.
• Establish strict criteria for matching voter lists with other sources.
• Audit purge source lists. If purge lists are developed by matching names on the voter registration list to names from other sources like criminal conviction lists, the quality and accuracy of the information in these lists should be routinely "audited" or checked.
• Monitor duplicate removal procedures. States should implement uniform rules and procedures for eliminating duplicate registrations.

C. "Fail-Safe" Provisions to Protect Voters

States should ensure that:

• No voter is turned away from the polls because her name is not found on the voter rolls. Instead, would-be voters should be given provisional ballots, to which they are entitled under the law.
• Election workers are given clear instructions and adequate training as to HAVA's provisional balloting requirements.

D. Universal Voter Registration

States should:

• Take the affirmative responsibility to build clean voter rolls consisting of all eligible citizens. Building on other government lists or using other innovative methods, states can make sure that all eligible citizens, and only eligible citizens, are on the voter rolls.
• Ensure that voters stay on the voter rolls when they move within the state.
• Provide a fail-safe mechanism of Election Day registration for those individuals who are missed or whose names are erroneously purged from the voter rolls.

http://www.brennance...ce/voter_purges

Edited October 27, 2010 by El Buscador

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Military Vote in Question After DOJ Gives Illinois 'Pass' on MOVE Act, Advocacy Group Warns

Published October 25, 2010

FoxNews.com

Military voters from the land of Lincoln could be shut out of the midterm election after the Justice Department reached an agreement with Illinois that gave the state "a pass" for violating federal election law, an advocacy group warned Monday.

The Justice Department hammered out the court agreement Friday addressing the failure of 35 Illinois counties to send military and overseas absentee ballots 45 days before the election -- a requirement of the MOVE Act. The agreement gave voters from six of those counties a few extra days to send back their ballots but did not specifically address the other 29 counties.

Eric Eversole, a former Justice voting section attorney who runs the nonprofit Military Voter Protection Project, told FoxNews.com the deal effectively lets wayward Illinois election officials off the hook and does little to ensure the state's military voters get their ballots in time.

"For at least 29 counties, there were absolutely no consequences," he said. "Illinois is precisely the reason why you can't wait until a week before the election to try and resolve a clear violation of military voting rights."

For some overseas military voters, he said, "it might not get there."

The Illinois agreement was the final deal struck by the Justice Department to address states' failure to send their ballots out in time. While agreements with other states had tougher provisions compelling them to send out more express ballots and extending the deadline to receive them by many more days, Eversole's group said the Illinois decree gave "no meaningful relief" to military voters.

There is an online alternative for some military voters who do not receive paper ballots in time, and the administration is urging service members to use that option if they need to.

Bob Carey, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, said in a written statement that voters from 30 states can access full ballots online.

"That number includes New York and Illinois, where we have the most significant problems with late ballot delivery," he said.

Military voters can visit FVAP.gov to access the online system; all voters also can file federal write-in absentee ballots, which are available online and include federal candidates.

"Even if voters have not received their absentee ballots, it's not too late to vote," Carey said.

Nearly a dozen states have struggled to come into compliance with the MOVE Act. The Justice Department has reached agreements with eight of them, including Illinois, and has filed lawsuits against three of them. The department subsequently hammered out agreements with those three states -- New York, New Mexico and Wisconsin.

Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement Friday that the Illinois agreement "will ensure that the state's military and overseas voters can participate in the upcoming federal elections."

The deadline to send out ballots, which 35 counties missed, was Sept. 18. For six counties where ballots were sent out between 16 and 20 days late, the agreement extends the deadline to receive ballots from Nov. 16 by two to three days. For those counties, the deadline to postmark the ballots moves from Nov. 1 to Nov. 2.

But the agreement does not offer a specific remedy for the 29 counties where ballots were mailed out between two and 12 days late. It instead includes a section that says election officials must mail out, either electronically or by express mail, "properly and timely requested" ballots they learn were not transmitted -- and then accept Nov. 2-postmarked ballots until Nov. 19. The decree also orders officials to make sure all requested electronic ballots are sent out.

Justice spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said the 29 counties did not get extra time because they already have 14 extra days after the election for their ballots to be received. She said the ballots will get to them in time and if any voter's on-time ballot is not counted, "we can file a lawsuit."

Eversole, though, said the agreement just doesn't go far enough. He said it could have at the very least explicitly extended the deadline for all 35 counties. And he expressed concern that the agreement did little to prevent the violations from happening again in 2012, saying it sends the message that so long as states accept ballots after Election Day, they can ignore the 45-day requirement in the MOVE Act. The 45 days, though, were meant to give military voters enough time to receive and send back their ballots before Election Day.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/25/military-vote-question-doj-gives-illinois-pass-act-advocacy-group-warns/

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Democrats need all those non-citizens, felons, dead people, and fictional characters to vote, because they just cannot find enough hippies and homeless to vote 2 or 3 times in multiple locations to win elections anymore.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Democrats need all those non-citizens, felons, dead people, and fictional characters to vote, because they just cannot find enough hippies and homeless to vote 2 or 3 times in multiple locations to win elections anymore.

Yeah, that's why the statistics have shown time and again that most eligible Americans, if they registered and actually vote, tend to vote for more left leaning candidates. The only real demographic that the Right has in their corner are old, crusty folks who still use the words 'swell' and 'golly.'

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Yeah, that's why the statistics have shown time and again that most eligible Americans, if they registered and actually vote, tend to vote for more left leaning candidates. The only real demographic that the Right has in their corner are old, crusty folks who still use the words 'swell' and 'golly.'

Smoke enough pot, and those statistics will dance and sing for you as well.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Smoke enough pot, and those statistics will dance and sing for you as well.

Wash your Geritol down with some prune juice and you won't have to use a plunger on your face.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Wash your Geritol down with some prune juice and you won't have to use a plunger on your face.

Do they still sell Geritol?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

f

Do they still sell Geritol?

I was thinking you'd be buying the big bottle of it at Costco, along with a case of prune juice. No?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

f

I was thinking you'd be buying the big bottle of it at Costco, along with a case of prune juice. No?

No, I am fairly regular. I drink my psyllium husk supplement with my morning and evening meals. Good for unclogging the arteries as well. The last flexible sigmoidoscopy exam I had, the technician was impressed with the condition of my colon.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

No, I am fairly regular. I drink my psyllium husk supplement with my morning and evening meals. Good for unclogging the arteries as well. The last flexible sigmoidoscopy exam I had, the technician was impressed with the condition of my colon.

More years for you to continue being part of the Republican base.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

More years for you to continue being part of the Republican base.

If the Republicans win next Tuesday, you may find me complaining next year louder that you.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

old, crusty folks who still use the words 'swell' and 'golly.'

I say "golly" a lot.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I say "golly" a lot.

I don't know if I can handle too many more disappointments from you today, Mustang Sally.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I don't know if I can handle too many more disappointments from you today, Mustang Sally.

I'm a crypto-fascist in the body of a pinko. I also like tuna noodle casserole (but with rice pasta).

[Obama 2012 1,714]

more hit-n-run posting..... joyful.

Of course nothing in this article is about "the right."

and of course liberal morons tend to think that just 'showing up' entitles everyone the right to vote....

It's not hard to register to vote and those who aren't registered are just plain lazy until election day.