Or good news, if you’re the GOP:
Five years after passage of a federal law to create electronic registration databases to deter voter fraud, the new technology is posing hurdles that could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters, a USA TODAY examination finds.
From Florida to Washington, voters have been challenged because names or numbers on their registration forms did not exactly match other government databases, such as Social Security and motor vehicle agencies. “We know that eligible people have been thrown off the rolls,” says Justin Levitt, a lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
The databases are only as good as the information fed into them by applicants and election officials. That can lead to human errors as well as variations from state to state. Colorado, for instance, knocked nearly 20% of its voters off the rolls between the 2004 and 2006 elections. Arkansas purged 3%, according to Election Assistance Commission data.
Remind me again why it’s bad to know who the voters are and that it’s all accurate?
Because they’re NOT accurate. The vast majority of purged voters are actually eligible. They’re purged on the basis of having the same first initial as someone else with the last name, or someone who has the same name. Republicans are also fond of a system whereby they send registered mail to an address and insist the person doesn’t live there if they don’t pick up the letter. I don’t know about you, but I don’t go to the post office and stand in line if I don’t know what I’m getting.
So why bother even having a registration system then? We might as well just open up the polls and hope people are honest enough to only vote once and give their correct name. If we even bother to ask it.
John, you don’t get it.
The Repubs are intentionally and selectively f*ucking up
the registration process.
John gets it all right. He’s just a conservitard troll and GOP shill.
Willfull ignorance: it’s what Republicans do best.