Voter Purges Prone to Error and Secrecy, Brennan Center Study Finds

[brooklynite]

Letter received today:

Dear *****,

I want to let you know about an important new report we will release today, Voter Purges. At 6:30pm (EST) tonight, we expect the Brennan Center to appear on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric for the first discussion of this practice. You can find the text of the report on our web site shortly before the broadcast (www.brennancenter.org).

We studied the way officials keep voter lists in 12 states. Here's what we found: election officials across the country are routinely striking millions of voters from the rolls through a process that is shrouded in secrecy, prone to error, and vulnerable to manipulation.

There really are no effective national standards to govern voter purges, and the result is an often chaotic, whimsical approach to the maintenance of voter rolls. Americans across the country lack basic protections against erroneous purges, and may show up to the polls only to find that they cannot vote.

We need to do more to pry the lid of secrecy off these voter purges. Tomorrow, the Brennan Center, along with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, will file public record requests in 12 states, demanding that officials tell the public how they conduct purges -- and who has been removed from the rolls.

This is just one way the Brennan Center is working to ensure that this election is fair and accurate. Our work in 2008 has ranged from lawsuits to protect nonpartisan voter registration drives, to a state-of-the-art Legal Guide to Student Voting, to a pathbreaking study on ballot design that has been used by hundreds of counties across the country. We are determined that in this critical election year, every American who wants to register can register, can vote, and can be assured their vote will be properly counted.

We hope we can count on your continued support in this critical election season. To help these critical efforts, click here.

[rvablue]

1. Yesterday here in central VA

there was a story on the local news that a huge envelope with already filled out voter registration and absentee ballot applications was MISTAKENLY sent to a church.

Thank god, it was a black church. They were expecting to receive blank forms for their own endeavors to get people to vote. Well, they promptly contacted the media, so if this does affect people voting it is now on the record.

Of course, the registrar was interviewed and said nobody would be affected and that is was all just a postage/mailing mix-up.

Just so happy that that particular church were the recipients otherwise they might have all found their way into a dumpster.