Tag Archives: Voter purge

Lawsuit claims Florida voter removal violates federal law

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A coalition of voting rights groups has sued Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, arguing that state efforts to remove voters from rolls violates the National Voter Registration Act.

The suit — filed June 19 by the Advancement Project, Fair Elections Legal Network, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and Project Vote — is one of several that have emerged since Florida Gov. Rick Scott launched an effort to remove non-citizens from voting rolls earlier this year.

Kathy Culliton-Gonzalez of the Advancement Project traces the voter purge, she said, to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch and True the Vote, which trains volunteers to watch polls, sued Indiana elections officials June 11, alleging that the state is not maintaining accurate voter rolls. Judicial Watch maintains a list of up to a dozen states, including Florida, that the organization plans to sue for the same reasons, president Tom Fitton said.

Florida is taking “reasonable steps” to do things right, Fitton said, and emphasized that any eligible voter who gets accidentally removed can vote provisionally. Any suggestion that Judicial Watch or True the Vote is participating in a nationwide effort to suppress minority or Democratic votes is ridiculous, Fitton said.

By AJ Vicens, News21

Coffee Break Ballot, June 19: Current Trends in Voting Rights

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We’ve noticed in the News21 newsroom how certain stories in our search fields stay hot. Part of this is probably the naturally viral nature of Internet news, but we’ve enjoyed seeing which stories pop up and keep buzzing.

Today, that story is a minor item from the Roanoke, Va., NBC affilate, WSLS. It’s a story about voter registration and dead dogs. Or, more specifically, one particular dead dog whose owner received forms inviting the pet to register to vote.

The story went viral for a variety of reasons, and it was picked up by such diverse sources as conservative blog RedAlert Politics and political news site, Politico. It also is a story about supposed voter fraud — even though this actually is an example of registration fraud, and not voter fraud — which gets a wide segment of the conservative Twittersphere riled.

It is also a story about a cute dog with a cute name, and nothing goes viral like stories about small animals, especially when those animals are given anthropomorphic qualities and get all mixed up in human activities like voting.

A coalition of civil rights organizations also filed a lawsuit against Florida this afternoon, alleging that the state’s removing voters from rolls violates section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but wouldn’t you rather read about the cute dog who would have been eligible to vote in Virginia if he was a human and hadn’t died two years ago?

What We’ve Been Reading

“Citizenship mandate challenged,” (Lyle Denniston, 06/19, SCOTUSBlog)

“Voter Purges,” (Myrna Pérez, 09/30/08, Brennan Center for Justice)

“Civil Rights Groups Sue Florida Over Voter Purging Lists,” (Brentin Mock, 06/19, The Nation / Colorlines)

“E-Voting: Trust but Verify,” (Steve Schneider and Alan Woodward, 06/19, Scientific American)

“St. Paul jumps in to VoterID fray,” (Patrick Thornton, 06/19, MinnLawyerBlog)

“JW Sues Obama Justice Department for Records Regarding South Carolina’s Voter ID Law,” (Tom Fitton, 06/19, Breitbart.com / BigGovernment)

“Punch-Card Voting in Idaho,” (Pew Center on the States, 06/19)

“Joe Walsh, GOP Congressman, Introduces New Federal Voter ID Bill,” (Nick Wing, 06/19, The Huffington Post)

Twitter Trends

As mentioned above, that story about the voting-age eligible dog in Virginia bounced around Twitter this morning, particularly after Politico picked it up. At that point, several journalists released a collective Twitter yell complaining about the item’s lack of news value.

(While we wrote this post, North Carolina’s conservative Civitas Institute wrote a blog post warning about the dangers of pet voting. The story has legs, apparently.)

There are still some latecomers to the Mitt Romney/#VotingRights party, as users continue to ask the GOP presidential candidate what he thinks about the Florida voter roll removal.

The #voterID hashtag also has spiked on social media search engine Topsy.com, as users mention a recently introduced federal voter ID bill by U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., and the aforementioned voting-eligble dog.

We’ll be sure to tell you if Mitt Romney replies to all these tweets, and if the dog is ever enfranchised. Follow us at @WhoCanVote.

Fight over Florida voter rolls leaves county officials in a lurch

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The legal wrangle over who should remain on Florida voter rolls has caught counties in the middle of two lawsuits filed this week, said Michael Ertel, Seminole County supervisor of elections.

The Florida Secretary of State has sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for access to data that verifies citizenship. On the heels of that suit, the Justice Department  requested a federal injunction Monday to block what it calls voter purging.

“When you have two government entities not working together, this is what causes people to think government is inefficient,” Ertel said. “Politics gets in the way of a lot of this.”

Vicki Davis, Martin County supervisor of elections, said none of the 67 counties will move forward with the purge until the legal disputes are settled.

At the county level, she said, the focus is on conducting a problem-free Aug. 14 primary.

By Ethan Magoc, News21

True the Vote, Judicial Watch sue Indiana over voter registration list

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Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group, and True the Vote, a tea party-backed group that trains poll watchers, filed a lawsuit against Indiana June 11, alleging that the state violated federal law by failing to maintain an accurate voter registration list and to provide records of those efforts.

“Indiana’s election officials are shirking their responsibility to maintain clean voter registration lists,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a statement. “This is our first lawsuit. We plan to sue other states who failed to take reasonable steps to remove dead and ineligible voters from the rolls.”

Indiana elections officials, including Secretary of State Connie Lawson, were traveling and couldn’t be reached for comment June 11, communications director Valerie Kroeger said.

Catherine Engelbrecht, president of True the Vote, said in a statement that the lawsuit was about “restoring integrity” to American elections.

States such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, California and several others can expect lawsuits as well, Fitton told News21. This is Judicial Watch’s second voter issues-related lawsuit in two weeks.

Judicial Watch has been working with True the Vote and the Election Law Center since at least February, when the three announced the 2012 Election Integrity Project.

That effort was to “pressure states and localities, through Judicial Watch lawsuits if necessary, to clean up voter registration rolls pursuant to Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act.” The group claimed that voter rolls in nearly a dozen states contained ineligible voters. Judicial Watch sent letters to election officials in Indiana and Ohio, warning of lawsuits.

By AJ Vicens and Tasha Khan, News21

Coffee Break Ballot, June 11: Current Trends in Voting Rights

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Welcome back to the work week! As the controversy over Florida’s voter roll clean up/ voter purge grows, media attention also seems to be heating. You’ll find an update below from one our News21 reporters on how voting registration organizations reacted to the judicial hold on Florida’s 48-hour registration reporting requirement.

Other curious developments this morning include a new lawsuit brought against the state of Indiana by the policy action groups Judicial Watch and True the Vote, requesting that the state perform a purge to verify voter rolls.

More on that later, but first a look at what we’ve been reading over the weekend and this morning.

What We’ve Been Reading

“Texas bracing for legal battle against feds over voter ID law,” (Gary Martin, 06/11, Houston Chronicle)

“Interfering with voting rights,” (Editorial Board, 06/10, Washington Post)

“Commentary: If anyone is committing voter fraud in Michigan, it is Republicans,” (Mark Brewer, 06/09, Detroit News)

“Scott accuses Obama administration of ‘stalling’ on database to check voters,” (George Bennett, 06/11, Palm Beach Post)

“Breaking: Judicial Watch and True the Vote Sue Indiana on Voter Roll Cleanup,” (Election Law Center, 06/11, ElectionLawCenter.com)

Twitter Trends

The weekend is usually a quiet time for social media interaction on voting rights. Over the weekend, progressive activists had a bit more to talk about, as the 2012 Netroots Nation conference in Providence, R.I., presented a panel on what it called a “War on Voting.” Panelists included Nation reporter Ari Berman, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., Rep. Keith Ellison, D.-Minn., and Keesha Gaskins, Brennan Center for Justice senior counsel.

Mentions of this panel bounced around Twitter Saturday, Sunday and this morning, as users react to and interact on issues raised in the panel.

We’ve also seen Twitter commentary on a panel discussion from NPR’s Diane Rehm Show this morning featuring the Brennan Center’s Wendy Weiser, the Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky and ElectionLine.org’s Doug Chapin.

For more on what we’re reading and reporting, follow @WhoCanVote on Twitter.