A New York Times analysis finds a massive, multi-state voter purge going on, which may violate federal law...
Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.
The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run. Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening and trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers. Some states allow such voters to cast provisional ballots. But they are often not counted because they require added verification. Although much attention this year has been focused on the millions of new voters being added to the rolls by the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama, there has been far less notice given to the number of voters being dropped from those same rolls. So what's behind this? The Orwellian "Help America Vote Act," pushed through by a Republican congress to satisfy the GOP's constant need to pretend there is massive voter fraud going on in Democratic strongholds -- a mania that was also behind the firing of U.S. attorneys unwilling to embark on Karl Rove inspired witch hunts.
The Times' article takes a while to get to Florida, where our Republican Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, is having the 67 supervisors of elections across the state enforce a 2006 law that sifts voter registrations through the Social Security database, as well as state driver's license records. Initially, there were at least 16,000 people who were stricken from the rolls due to our "no match, no vote," law, though most were restored after a court order last December. Now that the order has been set aside, the Sunshine State purge is back on, and we simply don't yet know how many will face problems on Election Day. More from the Times' story: The six states seem to be in violation of federal law in two ways. Some are removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, which is not allowed except when voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state, or have been declared unfit to vote. Some of the states are improperly using Social Security data to verify registration applications for new voters. In addition to the six swing states, three more states appear to be violating federal law. Alabama and Georgia seem to be improperly using Social Security information to screen registration applications from new voters. And Louisiana appears to have removed thousands of voters after the federal deadline for taking such action. Under federal law, election officials are supposed to use the Social Security database to check a registration application only as a last resort, if no record of the applicant is found on state databases, like those for driver’s licenses or identification cards. The requirement exists because using the federal database is less reliable than the state lists, and is more likely to incorrectly flag applications as invalid. Many state officials seem to be using the Social Security lists first. In the year ending Sept. 30, election officials in Nevada, for example, used the Social Security database more than 740,000 times to check voter files or registration applications and found more than 715,000 nonmatches, federal records show. Election officials in Georgia ran more than 1.9 million checks on voter files or voter registration applications and found more than 260,000 nonmatches. Officials of the Social Security Administration, presented with those numbers, said they were far too high to be cases where names were not in state databases. They said the data seem to represent a violation of federal law and the contract the states signed with the agency to use the database.
Greg Palast was on with Stephanie Miller this morning talking about his and Robert Kennedy Jr.'s new comic handbook, "Steal Back Your Vote." Download it and use it -- take it with you to the polls. And if you're in Florida, where I am: VOTE EARLY. Using early vote is the best way to find out if you have a problem, while giving yourself time to fix it, rather than being pushed to vote on a provisional ballot on November 4th, which has less chance of being counted.
Labels: 2008 election, Help America Vote Act, Republicans, voter purges, voting |
