Preventing Problematic Voter Purging
Dispatches on the For The People Act (Edition #11)
Welcome to another edition of our For The People Act Substack. As we await the mark-up of the bill in the Senate (May 11th), we will spotlight one of its most critical voter protection provisions — the prohibition of aggressive and discriminatory voter purges. Please subscribe and share if you haven’t already!
But before we begin...
Tomorrow, Friday, April 23rd at 5:30 pm, we are hosting a Facebook Live conversation with Elizabeth Hira, Spitzer Fellow and Policy Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. We will discuss provisions of the For The People Act and what to expect when the Senate marks up the bill on May 11th. RSVP here.
This week on the podcast, we are re-broadcasting the audio of an amazing event with professors Guy-Uriel Charles, Carol Anderson, and Lawrence Lessig. These three scholars discuss voter suppression, the bills that Congress is currently considering to tackle it — the For The People Act and the Voting Rights Advancement Act — and what we can do to ensure their passage and save our democracy. There was also a special appearance by Representative Mondaire Jones. Listen here.
Provision of the Week: Saving Eligible Voters from Voter Purging (Title II, Subtitle F)
What is it?
This provision would curtail the ability of states to remove citizens from the voter rolls through imprecise and discriminatory procedures.
Election officials are required to maintain up-to-date voter registration lists so that those who are eligible to vote can do so without problems and those who have moved or passed away don't unnecessarily inflate the rolls. There are many ways for election officials to accurately maintain voter lists and it is important that state legislatures and the federal government empower officials to successfully and accurately maintain the rolls. However, what should be routine maintenance has become an avenue of targeted voter suppression in some states. Aggressive voter purges — those based on wildly imprecise and discriminatory metrics, such as responding to mailers or not voting — have unjustly disenfranchised countless citizens across the country, largely for partisan gain.
The For the People Act sharply curtails anti-democratic purging practices, mandating that decisions to purge voters from the voter rolls must be based on both objective and reliable information. It would prohibit states from removing voters from the rolls because they did not vote and/or did not respond to a mailer (again, an unreliable metric of whether one remains eligible to vote).
Additionally, the For the People Act requires that election officials give proper notice to any voter flagged for removal and that all purges have to be made public within two days. The bill also requires election officials to provide ample opportunity for any purged voter to contest their removal. These would be critical protections for voters and would greatly reduce the possibility of being wrongly removed from the voter rolls.
The For the People Act likewise prohibits the little-known practice of voter caging (Title 1, Subtitle C). Voter caging is a dirty trick that involves political parties or third-party groups sending mail to voters that they want to disenfranchise and then challenging the validity of their registration if the mail is returned as non-deliverable. Unsurprisingly, voter caging has been used in a targeted and discriminatory way, especially against communities of color, and the “information” gathered about voter eligibility is wildly imprecise. To learn more about the dangers of voter caging, check out this report by the Brennan Center.
Why does it matter?
The number of people purged from voter rolls has gone up in recent years. According to the Brennan Center, at least seventeen million people were removed from voter rolls just from 2016-2018. This is a far greater number than that of a decade prior.
One major reason for this increase: States have become far more aggressive with purging after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Indeed, the jurisdictions that were once covered by the VRA’s preclearance provision purged voters at significantly higher rates than those that were never covered. For example, Georgia purged twice as many voters from 2012-2016 than they did from 2008-2012.
The Supreme Court further emboldened states in 2018 when it gave Ohio the green light to continue its controversial “Use it or Lose it” purging procedure in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Inst. (2018). In Ohio, anyone who has not recently voted and did not respond to a mailer can be removed from the rolls.
Americans have the right to vote, but they also have the right not to. Aggressive, discriminatory, and imprecise voter purges — especially those that rely on “Use it or Lose it” procedures — are a direct attack on the right to vote. The For the People Act would greatly curtail the worst purges. It responds to the Husted decision by explicitly prohibiting purges of people who have not voted in recent elections and demands that election officials do their due diligence before disenfranchising voters. And, it ends the use of voter caging tactics. On top of all this, as we discussed in a previous Substack, the For the People Act mandates that states implement automatic voter registration (AVR). AVR, a program in which voters are automatically registered or reregistered whenever they interact with an eligible government agency, leads to far more accurate and updated voter rolls, reducing the need for significant voter roll maintenance.
Currently, there are over 360 bills in state legislatures that attempt to restrict voting. Legislation that focuses on voter roll purges is the fourth most common of these bills. It is critical that we protect voters from problematic purges by passing the For the People Act. For more information on how the For the People Act will help, check out this Letter in Support of Purge and Voting Caging Protections in H.R.1 published by Demos.
For more information on voter purges check out this report by the Brennan Center: Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote
In the News:
NBC News reports that a coalition of 15 political organizations are buying $1 million in ads in support of H.R. 1. The coalition, which includes the NAACP, the American Federation of Teachers, MoveOn, and the Sierra Club, plans to run ads about the For The People Act in New Hampshire, Georgia, Arizona, and Washington, D.C. The ads will feature Americans whose ability to vote will be restricted without the For The People Act.
The Hill published an opinion piece by Common Cause’s Jesse Littlewood and Yosef Getachew explaining why the For the People Act is essential to fighting election disinformation. The authors describe how the comprehensive bill punishes those who purposefully provide misleading election information and encourages the spread of accurate information by providing resources for voters to find the facts.
Forbes announces that, according to a new poll, companies that back voting rights are broadly supported by the public. The poll found that 72% of Republicans and 92% of Democrats would view a company more favorably if that company supported policies that made it easier for Americans to vote. Additionally, over two-thirds of those polled agreed with the sentiment that “companies can no longer afford to stay silent while states work to make it harder for people to vote.”
And now, a word from our (co)sponsors:
Now that the fight for H.R. 1 has become the fight for S. 1, we want to highlight and thank some key supporters in the Senate. Their advocacy for the For The People Act is crucial to its passage - and here we want to share their own words about why they support the bill!
“This bill includes common sense, good government policies that are vital for a healthy democracy, and it deserves bipartisan support here in the Senate.” - Senator Tom Carper of Delaware upon introduction of the For The People Act in 2019.
“Special interests are at it again, using dark money to make it harder to vote in our elections. Enough is enough. It's time for the Senate to pass the #ForThePeople Act.” - Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan (via Twitter)
Social Media Roundup:
Let’s be frank: there are A LOT of tweets, posts, and general conversation about the For The People Act. In this section, we give you an overview of the tweets and media you really need to see.
How you can help:
Last week’s substack included 5 quick and easy ways to join the fight for H.R. 1. You can learn more about how to get involved here. In the meantime, you can:
Call your senators and tell them that you support reforming the filibuster to pass H.R. 1. You can find your senators’ phone numbers, as well as where they stand on the filibuster, using our handy filibuster tracker.
Write a letter to the editor in your local paper sharing your support of H.R. 1 and urging your Senators to pass it. Not sure how to write a letter to the editor? Reach out to us at info@equalcitizens.us and we can help!
Share our newsletter, our podcast, the articles included above, and the resources on H.R. 1 below on social media and tell your friends why you support #ForThePeopleAct.
If you have questions about H.R. 1 you want us to answer in our Substack, tweet at us with #HR1Substack.
Extra, Extra:
If, after reading our newsletter, you still want to know more about the For The People Act, Equal Citizens, or the two of us, you can find more information here!
Relevant Resources:
Here are a few resources on the “For the People Act” if you have questions:
Equal Citizens recently launched a filibuster tracker, so you can see where your senator stands on the filibuster. It also includes their phone numbers and their Twitter handles, so you can get in touch with them directly and push them to support filibuster reform!
The Brennan Center for Justice created a wonderful guide to H.R. 1. Check it out here. They also created an in-depth report about racism and disenfranchisement due to incarceration.
Here is the link to the House website on the For the People Act.
Flood social media with these awesome graphics about the For the People Act!
There is a lot of misinformation about H.R. 1, and the amount of misinformation will only grow as the fight heats up. That’s why it’s more important than ever to make sure everyone has all the facts on the bill - here is an article from Media Matters that can help you fact check.
More about us:
Kate Travis is a fellow at Equal Citizens and a junior at Harvard studying History and Literature with a minor in Government. When she’s not fighting for democracy, you can find her running, playing the cello, and drinking copious amounts of coffee (maybe even all at once). Follow her on Twitter at @mkht930.
Kevin Rissmiller is a fellow at Equal Citizens and a Goodwin-Niering Scholar at Connecticut College majoring in Government and exploring sociology, economics, and applied statistics. In his free time, you will find him at Dunkins or (pre-pandemic) playing ultimate frisbee. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
If you want more updates on H.R. 1 from Kate and Kevin, then subscribe here!