The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 28, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Maintenance of voter registration lists is a standard practice, to remove voters who’ve died, moved, or are no longer eligible.  But some hyper-partisan legislatures and state officials have weaponized the process.  If you’ve moved or skipped voting in a recent election, your voter registration may no longer be valid.

Wyoming announced the purge of 86,000 of its voters this week, over 30% of its 2022 registered voters.  That’s thanks to a new “use it or lose it” law giving county clerks authority to remove voters if they skip only one federal election.   

In January, Florida removed almost 1 million voters from its rolls as a result of a similar 2023 law.   Last year, just two weeks before the voter registration window closed in Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose purged more than 26,000 voters – just weeks before a ballot question on abortion rights. 

The remedy in many states had been same day registration.  But election day registration has been under attack as well, forcing registrants to vote by provisional ballot, or trying to end same day registration altogether.  

The moral of this story is that under the cloak of “election integrity,” voter purges are being used for voter suppression purposes in several states.   NOW is the time to check your registration, giving you time to re-register before November.  

We have links to tools to check your registration at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Southern Coalition for Social Justice  – Combatting Wrongful Voter Purges
Democracy Docket – In Seven States, Removing Voters from the Rolls Just Got Easier
American Bar Association – (2020)  “Use It or Lose It”: The Problem of Purges from the Registration Rolls of Voters Who Don’t Vote Regularly

CBS News – Eligible voters are being swept up in conservative activists’ efforts to purge voter rolls
Public News Service – WY purged 86,000 voters, must re-register for presidential election
Michigan Advance – Judge dismisses lawsuit claiming Michigan didn’t purge dead voters from election rolls
The Guardian – (2023) Ohio purged 26,000 voters days before abortion referendum deadline

American Democracy Minute – (2023) Florida Just Purged its List of Absentee Ballot Requestors, Forcing Millions of Voters to Reapply
WMNF – Almost 1 million Florida voters declared inactive after law purging voter lists
U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Groups Taking Action:
The Voter Purge Project,  Brennan Center for Justice,  Campaign Legal Center, League of Women Voters U.S.

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #FreedomtoVote #JohnLewisAct

The post Have You Been Purged?  States Have Stepped Up Removals of Inactive Voters – Sometimes for Partisan Advantage. It’s Time to Check Your Registration appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for July 31, 2023

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

Georgia’s Inactive Voter Purges:  When Voter List “Election Integrity” Maintenance Becomes Voter Suppression  

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

As we reported last week, Georgia and 20 other states remove voters who may not have voted recently, but are otherwise qualified, arguing it’s done for “election integrity.”  When does routine maintenance become a tool for voter suppression?

States and counties typically mail notifications of cancellation.  But in 2019, out of 313,000 inactive Georgia voters notified, only 4,500 responded by mail to reactivate their registrations. 

American Public Media and the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that after 560,000 inactive voters were purged in 2017, 87,000 re-registered. Sixty-five percent still lived in the same county – 23,000 of them at the same address – meaning they were still eligible voters.  To re-register, they needed to have done so 29 days before the next election, unlike 22 states which have election-day registration.  An estimated 30,000 voters re-registered, but too late to vote in the 2018 election.

For unknowingly canceled voters who showed up at the polls, most were offered a “provisional ballot,” which counts in the election tallies ONLY if the voter’s information is later verified by election officials.  Only one in four Georgia provisional ballots was actually counted in 2018.  

Protect your freedom to vote by checking your voter registration status at a tool we’ve linked at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.   I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Capitol Beat News Service – Nearly 200,000 ‘inactive’ Georgia voters to be dropped from rolls
NewsOne – Georgia ‘Voter Suppression’ Alleged Over Plans To Drop Nearly 200K Registered Names From Rolls
National Conference of State Legislatures – State Policies for Cancelling Inactive Voter Registrations
National Conference of State Legislatures – States with Same-Day Voter Registration
American Public Media Reports – (2019)  After the Purge:  How a massive voter purge in Georgia affected the 2018 election
Atlanta Journal Constitution – (2020)  Many eligible Georgia voters were canceled in nation’s largest purge
Atlanta Journal Constitution – (2021)   Purge warnings helped 4,500 Georgia voters save their registrations
Brennan Center for Justice – (2018) Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote

National Association of Secretaries of State:   Check Your Voter Registration Status

Groups Taking Action:
Fair Fight Action, New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter Fund, ACLU GA, Common Cause GA, League of Women Voters GA

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #VotingRights #VoterSuppression

The post Georgia’s Inactive Voter Purges:  When Voter List “Election Integrity” Maintenance Becomes Voter Suppression  appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for July 28, 2023

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Today we’re in Georgia, where almost 200,000 people who haven’t moved, aren’t felons, and whose voter eligibility hasn’t changed, may lose their voter registration prior to the 2024 Presidential election.  The reason?  They haven’t voted recently.

Removing voters who have moved or died is a routine election office function.   But under Georgia’s “use it or lose it” law, the state also takes steps when a voter hasn’t updated a registration, voted, signed a petition or responded to a mailing in five years. 

Around the U.S., 20 states have such rules, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, varying from cancellation after 8 years of inactivity, to Wyoming, which immediately cancels your voter registration if you don’t vote in a general election.  Ouch.

In 2017, then Secretary of State Brian Kemp purged 560,000 inactive Georgia voters – in one day.  Another 287,000 were removed in 2019.  Analysis by American Public Media and the Atlanta Journal Constitution later found that 56,000 re-registered for the 2018 election, but an estimated 107,000 would have otherwise been eligible to vote.  They hadn’t moved or changed their status. 

The timing of notifications and purges in Georgia is one factor which morphs routine list maintenance into voter suppression.  We’ll have more on this in our next report.

We have tools to check your voter registration status at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Capitol Beat News Service – Nearly 200,000 ‘inactive’ Georgia voters to be dropped from rolls
NewsOne – Georgia ‘Voter Suppression’ Alleged Over Plans To Drop Nearly 200K Registered Names From Rolls
National Conference of State Legislatures – State Policies for Cancelling Inactive Voter Registrations
American Public Media Reports – (2019)  After the Purge:  How a massive voter purge in Georgia affected the 2018 election
Atlanta Journal Constitution – (2020)  Many eligible Georgia voters were canceled in nation’s largest purge
Brennan Center for Justice – (2018) Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote

National Association of Secretaries of State:   Check Your Voter Registration Status

Groups Taking Action:
Fair Fight Action, New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter Fund, ACLU GA, Common Cause GA, League of Women Voters GA

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #VotingRights #VoterSuppression

The post Georgia Prepares to Purge Almost 200,000 Voters from the Voter List, Applying “Use it or Lose it” Rules; 20 Other States Have Similar Laws appeared first on American Democracy Minute.