Cross-posted at BloggingForMichigan.com
Since the fall of Boss Tweed more than a century ago, the Republican Party has argued for "election reform." That, in GOP-speak, means making it as hard as possible for likely Democrat to vote. Terri Lynn Land, our Secretary of State, stands accused of carrying on that tradition. Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union and several other plaintiffs filed suit in U.S. District Court in Detroit challenging two statewide voter purge programs by the Secretary of State's office. The suit names Land, Christopher Thomas, the director of the Bureau of Elections, and Ypsilanti Clerk Frances McMullen as defendants, and asks for a court order halting the voter purges and restoring affected voters to active status...
Secretary Land can't say she wasn't warned. In a press release issued by the Advancement Project, senior attorney Bradley Heard said:
We have repeatedly advised Secretary Land's office that these voter purge programs are unlawful, yet they have refused to bring their practices into compliance.Thus, we felt that filing this action was the only way we could ensure that the voting rights of thousands of Michigan residents would not be infringed upon during this important and historic presidential election, and beyond.
She didn't listen, and the ACLU went to court...
The complaint (25 pages, pdf) alleges that two of Land's voter-removal programs are illegal. Under one program, the Department of State, which administers both driver's license and voter registration records, immediately cancels the voter registrations of Michigan voters who get driver's
licenses in other states instead of following the procedure set out in the federal "Motor Voter" law. The complaint notes that Michigan residents obtain out-of-state driver's licenses for a number of reasons; for example, they are "snowbirds" who spend the cold months in states like Florida, or are students at colleges in other states where they must obtain that state's driver's license in order to hold a job or rent property there.
The second program being challenged requires local clerks to nullify the registrations of newly-registered voters whenever their original voter identification cards are returned by the
post office as undeliverable. In Detroit alone, elections officials report that nearly 30,000 voters per year are purged from the rolls as a result of this law. The ACLU argues that this procedure also violates the Motor Voter Law as well as other federal and state laws. (Under the Motor Voter law, a voter can stay on the rolls for at least two federal election cycles, or four years after his or her voter registration cards is returned.
The Advancement Project identifies the target of these purge programs:
These voter removal programs could have a very detrimental impact in minority and low-income communities across Michigan. These communities tend to be more transient and to live in multi-family housing. Thus, voters of color are at risk of facing mass disfranchisement at the polls if something is not done now.
Bottom line: Poor, young, and minority voters, those most likely to vote Democratic, are the most likely to find themselves purged off the rolls. Yet another example of election reform, Republican-style.
Update: The president of the Michigan League of Woman Voters is urging voters to "challenge-proof" themselves, such as by carrying a utility bill with the voter's address to the polling place.