2008 voter purges

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Introduction

2008 saw attempts to purge the states' voter rolls on a massive scale, with some states removing tens of thousands of voters at a time based on criteria such as too-common name, returned voter registration card, or unproven citizenship status.

While early and aggressive legal action by election monitoring and community watchdog groups resulted in the restoration of thousands of voters to the rolls, hundreds of thousands who were unaware of their registration status showed up at the polls to vote. Many were required to vote using provisional or challenge ballots, which are not included in the vote totals on election day.

2008 saw a new method of voter purge attempted, one which reflected the economic conditions of the year. Several local and state party groups announced their intention to challenge voters based on published lists of foreclosed homes in their area. With seven of the ten states nationwide with the highest foreclosure rates being considered "battleground" states (Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and Ohio), these voters were seen as particularly vulnerable and open to challenge. Some of the most prominent examples included:

• In Michigan, a Republican party official announced their intention to challenge foreclosed voters on election day. After the Obama campaign filed suit to stop the challenges, the official denied making the statement or that any such challenges were under consideration. In a settlement, both sides agreed that foreclosure rolls do not provide a reasonable basis for voter challenges and would not be used on election day.

• In Indiana on election day, a judge ruled that the state Republican party was violating a previously issued court order specifically banning challenges based on home foreclosure lists.

Several states were the focus of increased scrutiny due to the scale of their voter purges.

• In Colorado (purges)
• In Florida (no match no vote)
• In Georgia (citizenship challenges)
• In Michigan (voter caging)
• In Montana (party head steps down)
• In Ohio

For a full list of all voter purge activity in the 2008 election, visit 2008 Voter Purges

In the states

Alabama

• State courts say Alabama wrongly bars people from voting, Birmingham News, October 2, 2008.

More information: Alabama Voting Issues

Alaska

More information: Alaska Voting Issues

Arizona

More information: Arizona Voting Issues

Arkansas

More information: Arkansas Voting Issues

California

More information: California Voting Issues

Colorado

• Nov 12, 2008: The list of voters removed from Colorado's rolls in the 90 day preceding the election, required by a recent court settlement, was released by the Secretary of State's office. More than 44,000 individuals were purged from the voter list, a larger number than expected. Common Cause and other groups involved in the earlier lawsuit have pledged a close oversight to ensure that any eligible voter who was forced to vote on a provisional ballot due to the removal will have their vote count.

• Oct 31, 2008: U.S. District Judge John Kane ordered Secretary of State Mike Coffman to stop purging names from the voter rolls and immediately reinstate 146 voters removed since 9 p.m. October 29, 2008. "There has been a violation of federal law, and that must cease and stop immediately," Judge Kane said from the bench. "That is the order." The ruling follows an earlier settlement reached Oct. 29, 2008, which cleared the way for all voters purged within the 90 days before the general election to be allowed to vote using a special provisional ballot. In statements to the Rocky Mountain news, Coffman insisted that Wednesday's settlement did not preclude the removal of additional names, but will comply with Judge Kane's order.

• Oct 29, 2008: A settlement was reached in a lawsuit filed by the Advancement Project to reinstate up to 35,000 voter registrations previously removed. After an eight-plus hour negotiation hearing, all sides agreed to allow purged voters to vote on provisional ballots provided certain conditions are met. The terms of the settlement require Coffman to create a list of all voters removed within the 90-day no-purge period; voters on that list will be required to vote on a provisional ballot, but those ballots will have a presumption of eligibility unless proven otherwise.

• Oct 9, 2008: An October 9, 2008 New York Times story, "Colorado to Review How It Purges Voters’ Names," quotes Colorado election officials advising voters to make sure their registration information is accurate. "Colorado election officials said Thursday that they would review the way the state removed voters from the rolls and in the meantime encouraged voters to check their registration information to ensure its accuracy."

• Oct 4, 2008: it was reported that Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman had invalidated up to 35,000 new registrations due to an obscure problem with the registration form. According to the report the voters filled out the forms correctly, but will not be allowed to vote. On October 25 the Advancement Project filed a lawsuit Saturday on behalf of Colorado Common Cause, Mi Familia Vota, a voter registration group, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) filed a lawsuit against Coffman seeking to "prevent any more voters from being purged from the list of eligible voters for any reason not allowed by the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA).It also seeks to "identify and reinstate any and all voters who were improperly purged from the official list of registered voters during the 90-day no-purge period, except those exempted by the NVRA."

More information: Colorado Voting Issues

Connecticut

More information: Connecticut Voting Issues

Delaware

More information: Delaware Voting Issues

District of Columbia

More information: District of Columbia Voting Issues

Florida

• Oct. 28, 2008. Florida's "no-match no-vote" list has grown to 12,165, according to an updated version released by the state this week. Search the "no-match" list here. The list, which is heavily comprised of Hispanic and African-American voters, requires voters to confirm their identities in advance or face casting a provisional ballot at the polls. However, A Miami Herald survey of 50 randomly-selected voters taken from the list found that over one-third were not aware of the list's existence.

• Oct 27, 2008. A CNN story say many Florida voters have been purged from the voter rolls without legitimate reason. The report says that "officials found that 75 percent of about 20,000 voter registration applications from a three-week period in September were mismatched due to typographical and administrative errors. Florida's Republican secretary of state ordered the computer match system implemented in early September.

• Oct. 22, 2008. Volusia County Republicans announced they will use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls on election day.

• Sept. 16, 2008. Florida Republicans are sending "Do Not Forward" mail, and using returns to compile "challenge lists" even though people might forward their mail when they travel or for other reasons..

More information: Florida Voting Issues

Georgia

• Nov 8, 2008: A significant percentage of the almost 5,000 ballots "challenged" on citizenship grounds were deemed ineligible and discarded after challenged voters failed to appear before their County Board of Elections with documentation supporting their citizenship. According to Secretary of State Karen Handel, only new voters and those who changed key information on their voter registration were challenged. However, according to DeKalb County Election Director Linda Latimore, many voters in their area were challenged due to clerical error or common names. According to the Atlanta Journal-Consitution, in several Atlanta-area counties up to one-third of the challenged voters failed to appear before the deadline, and had their votes discarded. It is unclear whether challenged voters will be ineligible to vote in next month's Senate runoff election.

• Oct 30, 2008: Secretary of State Karen Handel has reminded voters that anyone can challenge another voter's eligibility at the polls, requiring them to vote on a "challenge ballot" (which will not be included in that day's totals) and appear before the board of elections at a later date. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 30, 2008:

Any voter can challenge another’s qualifications to cast a ballot by notifying a precinct poll manager, Handel said. That voter then would be given a challenge ballot and would have to go before the election board.

If large numbers of challenges are made on Election Day, Handel said, her office will investigate whether they are part of an orchestrated effort to influence the election’s outcome.

But, she said, “I’m not anticipating any kind of huge issue there.”

• Oct 30, 2008: According to a notice sent out by Secretary of State Karen Handel, over 4,500 voters whose registrations were challenged on citizenship grounds must appear before their county election board with documentation to prove their citizenship before election day. If they do not, they may be required to vote using "challenged" paper ballots that will not be included in their district's vote totals.
• Oct 28, 2008: A three-judge panel has ruled that Georgia must register 4,500 voters who had been denied voter registration because they could not prove their citizenship. The judges also ordered the Secretary of state to inform these voters that they are now allowed to vote. It remains uncertain whether this ruling will apply to 50,000 other Georgia voters denied registration for other reasons.

• Oct 27, 2008: A CNN story says that Georgia is checking more voters than any other state, resulting in over 50,000 voters being removed from the rolls, often erroneously. According to the report Georgia's Secretary of state, a Republican, began working on purging voter rolls after being elected in 2006.

• On October 17, 2008 a federal judge denied a request by voting groups to block Georgia's attempts to verify new voter applicants' identities and citizenship. The groups argue in a lawsuit the action is a "systematic purging" of rolls before the election and say the checks must first be approved by the Department of Justice.

• Oct 9, 2008: CBS News reports on a lawsuit claiming that Georgia is illegally purging voters from the registration rolls. From the story,

The complaint, filed by several civil rights groups on behalf of a single plaintiff, claims the state is violating the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act by purging possibly thousands of voters less than 90 days before the election and relying on a flawed database to question the citizenship of registered voters.

More information: Georgia Voting Issues

Hawaii

More information: Hawaii Voting Issues

Idaho

More information: Idaho Voting Issues

Illinois

More information: Illinois Voting Issues

Indiana

• October 25, 2008: an Indiana judge ruled that foreclosure lists cannot be used as a basis for removing voters from the registration rolls. On Election Day, November 4, the judge ruled that Republicans were violating his court order against such challenges.

• An October 9, 2008 New York Times story on illegal voter purging mentioned Indiana as one of the states involved. From the story:

  Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times. [. . .] The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.

More information: Indiana Voting Issues

Iowa

• Nov 6, 2008: A Poweshiek County special precinct board has ruled that the votes of Grinnell College students who neglected to include their campus PO box address on their absentee ballots must be counted. Republican Party co-chairs in Poweshiek County had asked election officials to disallow votes from 50 students; the students, who are assigned their own post office box address on campus, had instead used the general campus mailing address on their absentee ballots. However, according to the Poweshiek County Auditor, students have used the general address in past elections without issue.

More information: Iowa Voting Issues

Kansas

More information: Kansas Voting Issues

Kentucky

• On September 30, 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice released a comprehensive report on voter purging. Appendix A of the report, titled Kentucky Case Study, begins, "Kentucky’s 120 counties were home to a total of 2,766,288 registered voters, out of a population of 4,206,074, at the time of the November 2006 general elections. Between 2005 and 2006, 148,023 registrants were deleted from state voter lists, representing 5.4% of the registered population."

More information: Kentucky Voting Issues

Louisiana

• November 4, 2008. Concerns about voter purges in Louisiana continue. The Louisiana State Democractic Party's attorney Randy Piedrahita testified before the state House and Governmental Affairs committee that Democrats are being disproportionately removed from voter rolls. The ratio of removal of Democrats ranged from 2 to 1 in some parishes to as high as 25 to 1; Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne denies that there is any organized effort to target Democratic registrations.
• October 31, 2008. The League of Women Voters of Louisiana warned that some people who registered at state Department of Motor Vehicles offices were not added to the voter rolls. "Incidents have been reported that indicate this problem may be statewide (Orleans Parish to North Louisiana)," stated a press release from the group. Kay Hodges, the commissioner of the Office of Motor Vehicles, responded that the registration process, while not flawless, is reliable and automated. The local registrar of voters, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office and the head of the Office of Motor Vehicles all state that any problems that may exist are isolated.
• October 30, 2008. 18,000 voters, mostly Democrats, were recently removed from the voter rolls in the weeks before the November election. According to a story in the The Advocate/WBRZ News, "In 2008, there have been 18,175 removals as a result of challenges and in 2007, there were 16,927. But in the year prior to that, there were 3,681 and in 2003 there were only 1,079."
• In 2007, Louisiana election officials removed 21,000 mostly African-American voters from the registration rolls of areas most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. A voter could avoid removal only with proof that the registration was canceled in the other state, documentation not available, of course, to voters who never actually registered anywhere else.

More information: Louisiana Voting Issues

Maine

More information: Maine Voting Issues

Maryland

More information: Maryland Voting Issues

Massachusetts

More information: Massachusetts Voting Issues

Michigan

• Oct 31, 2008: A federal appeals court refused to issue a stay in the earlier finding by District Judge Stephen J. Murphy. (See next item.) Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land had argued that the 5,500 voters purged from the rolls were lawfully removed, and that their reinstatement in time for Tuesday's election would be an undue burden. All names are now being restored to the voter lists, and a final ruling is expected by the court sometime in November.
• Oct 13, 2008: Judge: Michigan illegally purging voters, From the story:

"Michigan's Secretary of State violates federal law through two methods it uses to purge names from its list of qualified voters, a federal judge in Detroit ruled Monday.

And U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy ordered Michigan election officials to immediately halt and attempt to rectify one of the two practices -- canceling voter registrations for those whose voter identification card is returned as undeliverable.

Murphy ordered the state to remove the "rejected" marking in the qualified voter file for all persons whose original voter ID cards have been returned to the state as undeliverable since Jan. 1, 2006. About 1,500 people have been removed from the voter list in that manner this year, according to evidence presented in the case.

Murphy said a second Michigan practice -- immediately canceling the voter registration of those who apply for a driver's license in another state -- also violates the National Voting Rights Act."

• Oct 11, 2008: Voter roll purges in very poor native New Mexican pueblos and Detroit's "war-zone" investigated by Greg Palast of the BBC. There is also a 14 min video. From the website:

"Newsnight investigative reporter Greg Palast travels from the Native pueblos of New Mexico to the war-zone of the 8 Mile neighborhood of Detroit to meet some of the three million voters who have been disappeared by a GOP campaign draining voter rolls of the poor, the dark-skinned, the defenseless."

• September, 2008. Voter caging. There are reports from multiple sources that the Michigan Republican party was preparing an attempt to disenfranchise (mostly black) voters whose houses have been foreclosed, saying they no longer live at that address and therefore are not qualified to vote. In a settlement of a lawsuit seeking to prevent Michigan Republicans from using foreclosure lists to challenge voters, the Republicans admitted the existence of the scheme. From a settlement statement by the Michigan Democratic Party,

"The settlement acknowledges the existence of an illegal scheme by the Republicans to use mortgage foreclosure lists to deny foreclosure victims their right to vote."

More information: Michigan Voting Issues

Minnesota

More information: Minnesota Voting Issues

Mississippi

More information: Mississippi Voting Issues

Missouri

• On September 30, 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice released a comprehensive report on voter purging. Appendix A of the report, titled Missouri Case Study, begins, "Between 2005 and 2006, Missouri deleted 416,478 names from the voter rolls, representing 10.4% of the registered population in the state. At the end of 2006, Missouri had 4,007,174 registered voters."

More information: Missouri Voting Issues

Montana

• October 2008: The Montana Republican Party challenged the voter registrations of 6,000 people in the state’s Democratic strongholds, such as the university towns like Missoula and rural counties with Native American reservations. The move was widely condemned, and the challenge subsequently withdrawn. In the wake of the controversy, party executive director Jake Eaton stepped down.

More information: Montana Voting Issues

Nebraska

More information: Nebraska Voting Issues

Nevada

• On October 22, 2008, Nevada's Secretary of State ruled against a Republican objection to allowing voters who registered on time but had incorrect information to correct their information and vote. The voters will be allowed to correct their information and vote.

• An October 9, 2008 New York Times story on illegal voter purging mentions Nevada as one of the states involved.

• On September 30, 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice released a comprehensive report on voter purging. Appendix C of the report, titled Nevada Case Study, states, "Between the close of registration for the November 2004 federal elections to the close of registration for the November 2006 federal elections, Nevada deleted 130,771 names from the voter rolls – 13.2% of total registrants."

More information: Nevada Voting Issues

New Hampshire

More information: New Hampshire Voting Issues

New Jersey

More information: New Jersey Voting Issues

New Mexico

More information: New Mexico Voting Issues

New York

More information: New York Voting Issues

North Carolina

More information: North Carolina Voting Issues

North Dakota

More information: North Dakota Voting Issues

Ohio

• November 4, 2008. Election Protection coalition reports many voters showing up to vote and finding they are not on the registration rolls, particularly Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) and Franklin County (Columbus).

• In September, 2008, the Ohio Republican party sued the Ohio Secretary of State in an attempt to block 666,000 new voters from being added to the registration rolls. On October 15, 2008, a federal court ruled that Ohio had until the following Friday to set up a system to verify the eligibility of about 666,000 newly registered voters and make the information available to the state's 88 county election boards.. This ruling threatened to disenfranchise more than 200,000 of the newly-registered Ohio voters. Two days later the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in, ruling that the voters could remain on the voting rolls. Following this ruling Ohio Secretary of State Brunner, a Democrat, received death threats, suspicious packages containing white powder in the mail and threatening phone calls. On October 25 President Bush, in an unprecedented pre-election move, ordered the Justice Department to "look into" whether 200,000 new Ohio voters must reconfirm their registration information. On October 29 the Justice Department declined to require the state to disclose the names of voters whose data did not exactly match other databases.
• September 20, 2008. Project Vote warns that "significant numbers of minority voters will be included on the county-generated caging lists" if voters are removed without a hearing after the state mailed letters marked "Do not forward" and over 500,000 were returned as undeliverable.
• On September 30, 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice released a comprehensive report on voter purging. Appendix A of the report, titled Ohio Case Study, begins, "As of the 2006 election, Ohio had 7,860,052 registered voters, and the state reported that 416,744 registrants (5.3% of total registrants) were deleted from the registration rolls in 2006."

More information: Ohio Voting Issues

Oklahoma

More information: Oklahoma Voting Issues

Oregon

More information: Oregon Voting Issues

Pennsylvania

• October 31, 2008. Delaware County rejected 250 voter-registration applications and is investigating 4,000 more. The Delaware County Voter Registration Commission, a three-member commission with two Republicans, which had not met for 15 years before now, is examining new voter registrations because of concerns over news reports about ACORN. Delaware County is rejecting the registration applications based on criteria that no other county uses.

More information: Pennsylvania Voting Issues

Rhode Island

More information: Rhode Island Voting Issues

South Carolina

More information: South Carolina Voting Issues

South Dakota

More information: South Dakota Voting Issues

Tennessee

More information: Tennessee Voting Issues

Texas

More information: Texas Voting Issues

Utah

More information: Utah Voting Issues

Vermont

More information: Vermont Voting Issues

Virginia

• September 30, 2008. The Washington Post reports that Old Dominion University students are being probed for voting eligibility: "This fall, students at Old Dominion University who registered to vote in their college town received questionnaires from the Norfolk elections board -- probing whether they were claimed as dependents on their parents' income-tax returns, whether they hold out-of-state driver's licenses, and where their cars were registered. A group of students, backed by the Barack Obama campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union, cried foul, viewing the questionnaire as an attempt to disqualify them from voting in Virginia."

More information: Virginia Voting Issues

Washington

• On September 30, 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice released a comprehensive report on voter purging. Appendix B of the report, titled Washington Case Study, states, "Between the close of registration for the November 2004 federal elections and the close of registration for the November 2006 federal elections, Washington deleted 503,151 registrants (15.4% of total registrants) from the state voter rolls".

More information: Washington State Voting Issues

West Virginia

More information: West Virginia Voting Issues

Wisconsin

• October 26, 2008. A judge threw out a lawsuit brought by the co-Chair of the McCain campaign that would have forced the state to double-check voter registrations going back two years. If this were allowed it "would throw hundreds of thousands of registrations into doubt, possibly creating a post-election ballot-counting frenzy such as that seen in Florida after the 2000 presidential election." From the report, "The lawsuit sought to force the accountability board to order local clerks to check hundreds of thousands of voter registrations since January 2006 against state driver, death and felon databases to ensure accuracy and comply with the federal Help America Vote Act. The suit also sought to purge ineligible voters from the rolls."

• September 13, 2008. The Wisconsin Attorney General - co-chair of John McCain's campaign in Wisconsin - has filed a lawsuit that could result in thousands of voters being purged from registration lists if their names do not exactly match drivers license records. Since Wisconsin allows voters to register on election day, this will cause very long lines at the polls.

More information: Wisconsin Voting Issues

Wyoming

More information: Wyoming Voting Issues