This fall, millions of Americans may head to the polls only to find their names aren’t on voter registration lists anymore. These voters may have to cast provisional ballots. Or worse, they could be turned away from the polls altogether.
The cause? Voter purges — an often-flawed method of cleaning up voter registration lists by deleting names from voter rolls. …
To be sure, voter cleanup efforts are necessary to keep our registration rolls accurate and to ensure that all Americans are confident in the election outcomes. But that cannot be done at the expense of voters. Far too many states are recklessly purging their voter lists, disregarding federal law and ignoring evidence that shows the data they’re using is deeply flawed. CONT.
Myrna Pérez (Brennan Center for Justice), New York Times