Cross-posted at Velvet Revolution's Election Protection Strike Force
Our colleagues at The BRAD BLOG have recently blogged about a CBS Evening News report on illegal voter purges going on in at least 19 states, including key battleground states. Scores of thousands of voters have been purged from the rolls.
§ 1973gg-6. Requirements with respect to administration of voter registration(2) (A) A State shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.
Yet despite this law, on the books since the 1990s, many states are conducting these illegal, massive purges of the voter rolls.
From the AP: "Since the last federal election in 2006 ... more than 2 million Democrats [have been added] to voter rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 thousand voters in the same states."
This means that these illegal voter purges disenfranchise registered Democrats at a much higher rate than those voters who are registered as Republicans.
So you'd think that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Obama campaign would be all over this, fighting to stop these illegal purges. And you'd be wrong. Both organizations seem to be in deep denial about this problem (along with countless other election integrity problems). The only election protection activity they're taking is to promise they'll have lawyers "on the ground" all over the country on election day to help with problems.
But by then it will be too late. The voter purges will be done and hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of voters will be disenfranchised and denied their right to vote, or they'll be forced to cast a provisional ballot (and in the 2004 election, only two-thirds of provisional ballots were counted).
So here's where you come in.
Call, snail mail, and email the DNC and the Obama campaign. Repeatedly. Demand action. Demand they take steps and spend some money to stop these illegal voter purges.
The DNC and the Obama campaign are asking for the money and support of voters. So let's insist they in turn support the voters by using some of the money they are given and the power they have to end these illegal voter purges.
Following are possible talking points to use when contacting the DNC and the Obama campaign.
Having lawyers on the ground on election day isn't going to help this problem. The illegal systematic voter purges are happening now, and the problem needs to be stopped now.
The law is clear. Systematic voter purges that occur within 90 days of an election are illegal. We demand that the DNC and the Obama campaign take action to protect the rights of the voters.
The DNC and Obama campaigns are asking for support and donations from voters. In turn, we demand that the DNC and Obama campaign support the voters by protecting them from illegal disenfranchisement.
Here is contact information for the Obama campaign:
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