ACLU Report Shows Millions of Eligible Voters May Be Turned Away on Election Day
Tron Nick
New ACLU Report Shows Millions of Eligible Voters May Be Turned Away on Election Day
Nationwide Survey of 15 State's Purge Laws
Millions of eligible voters may be prevented from casting their ballots on November 2nd due to non-existent or flawed procedures used by state election officials to purge felons from voter rolls, according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and Demos, as part of the Right to Vote Campaign. "Because few states have standardized procedures or policies for purging felons from voter lists, there is little doubt that millions of voters may be disfranchised on Election Day," said Laleh Ispahani, lead author of the report. The report shows that states, even those with identical disfranchisement policies, conduct purges very unevenly because of flawed or nonexistent legislative guidance. As a result, legal voters, including voters who share similar names with felons, are mistakenly taken off of voter rolls. The report examined the purge structures and procedures of 15 states. The ACLU researched how state elections officials "match" people with felony convictions against individuals listed on their voter registration list before purging them from the rolls, and whether states notify the individuals deemed "matched" that they will be or have been purged. [more ]Among the key findings of the report:
No Purge Criteria: None of the states surveyed requires its officials to use any specific or minimum criteria to ensure that an individual with a felony conviction is the same individual being purged from the voter rolls.
A Limited Ability to Challenge Purges: Two-thirds of the states surveyed do not require elections officials to notify voters purged from the voter rolls, denying these voters an opportunity to contest erroneous purges.
]Among the key findings of the report: