Election Law @ Moritz

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Edward B. Foley
Free & Fair is a collection of writings by Edward B. Foley, one of the nation's preeminent experts on election law.

Topic-by-Topic Coverage (State Voter Registration Databases)

Recent News & Analysis

Below are the most recent News & Analysis posts on State Voter Registration Databases. See All News & Analysis on State Voter Registration Databases

11/10/08
WI AG Appeals Matching Lawsuit

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, as promised, has filed an appeal of his lawsuit demanding that the state's chief election authority go back and perform database matches to confirm the personal information of voters who submitted voter registration applications before the state's database matching programs went online.  Moritz is obtaining documents (see case page here). [Read More]

10/31/08
Thousands of CO Absentees Could Have ID Problems

The Denver Post reports that Colorado election officials are warning that approximately 35,000 first-time mail-in registrants who have requested absentee ballots were not matched in the state's voter registration database and therefore need to send in a photocopy of ID with their mail-in ballots.  However, there seems to be confusion amongst voters as to this requirement, and many of them may not be sending in the appropriate ID.  Administrators have indicated they will treat these ballots as provisional ballots. [Read More]

10/30/08
Ohio Does Not Have Technology to Match Voters

The Ohio Secretary of State has announced that Ohio's statewide voter registration database, for practical purposes, is currently incapable of performing HAVA comparisons of the information on incoming voter registration applications against other government databases.  While previously fighting GOP efforts to use this database function to investigate alleged fraud, Brunner appeared to believe the database was capable of performing such comparisons. [Read More]

10/30/08
6th Circuit Rejects MI Purges

The federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Michigan election officials stay of a lower court injunction that required officials to undo purges they had performed on the voter registration database.  Among other things, the opinion holds that any voter listed in the VRDB as "active" is considered a "registrant" for purposes of the federal NVRA, and therefore comes under the protections of that statute.  See Major Pending Cases case page, Lawsuit Tracker page.

10/30/08
Settlement Reached in CO Purging Case

The Denver Post reports that Colorado has reached a settlement with Common Cause and other organizations in the recent VRDB purge case.  While the purged voters will still have to cast a provisional ballot, those ballots will be specially flagged and examined first, before all other provisional ballots.  Furthermore, the ballots will enjoy a presumption of validity, and may only be discounted by clear and convincing evidence of ineligibility.  See Major Pending Cases case page here, Lawsuit Tracker page here. [Read More]

Recent Commentary

Below are the most recent Commentaries on State Voter Registration Databases . See All Commentaries on State Voter Registration Databases

10/19/08
Understanding the Supreme Court’s Decision in Brunner v Ohio Republican Party

There is a great deal of bad commentary in the media on the United States Supreme Court’s recent decision holding in favor of the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, and against the Ohio Republican Party. The holding did not sanction Brunner’s conduct nor was it a “normal” judicial decision not to intervene in elections at “a late date.” Both claims are false.

10/17/08
ORP v. Brunner: What is at stake?

HAVA arguably requires states to compare information contained on incoming voter registration applications against information in state motor vehicles databases and the federal Social Security Administration database to confirm the accuracy of the personal information on the applications. The Ohio Secretary of State has been performing a confirmation process of this kind, but has not been sharing the information with local boards of election (or with the public) in the most accessible way. However, a recent TRO issued by an Ohio district court and upheld by the 6th Circuit would compel the Secretary to supply this information in an accessible form. The Secretary appealed and the case is now in front of Justice Stevens of the US Supreme Court.

What is really at stake? On a superficial level, not much. The case does not directly affect any substantive voting rights, only how information is shared. However, the case could indirectly affect substantive voting rights depending on how people use this information.

Recent News Stories

Below are the most recent News Stories on State Voter Registration Databases. See All News Stories on State Voter Registration Databases

6/17/09
Thousands of voters removed from voting rolls

Republicans and Democrats agreed for the first time in about a decade how to take inactive voters off the voting rolls.

6/4/09
DOJ Rejects Discriminatory Voter List Procedure in Ga.; Raises Concerns for New Election Law

The decision will require Georgia to halt its controversial "citizenship check" procedure, whereby  Social Security and driver’s license numbers were used to check if voter applicants were citizens.

4/20/09
More than 200,000 state voters purged

More than 200,000 people have been removed from Pennsylvania's voter rolls since the presidential election in November — 53,000 of them in Allegheny County.

4/8/09
Report: Ohio must update voter lists

Ohio appears to be violating a federal mandate by not automatically updating voter registrations when residents change the address on their driver's licenses, according to the final report from two elections summits.

4/2/09
Candidate Says Voter Lists Are Flawed

Stephanie Burke, a community activist, is running for the District 4 City council seat in Pocomoke City. However, she says there is a problem. Burke says the list of registered voters that she received from the city does not coincide with Worcester County Board of Elections' list.

Current Litigation

Below are the Active Cases on State Voter Registration Databases . See All Current and Archived Cases on State Voter Registration Databases