By Mel Wilson, NASW Senior Policy Advisor
In recent years, voter roll purges— by many states— have emerged as a contentious issue in American electoral politics. States often argue that these purges are necessary to maintain the reliability of their voter rolls and to prevent fraud.
However, voting rights advocates insist — with significant evidence — that such purges are often intended as tools for voter suppression. Furthermore, advocates argue that voter roll purges are targeted and disproportionately affect marginalized communities, especially communities of color. While the tactic of targeted voter roll purges is not new, given the stakes of the 2024 presidential and Congressional elections, this practice demands ongoing scrutiny and election protection responses.
This problem is far from theoretical. For example, On October 11th, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Virginia election officials that accuses the state of purging names from the state’s voter rolls, which is a violation of federal election law. Additionally, the Virginia League of Women Voters took legal action against Virginia’s Republican governor accusing him of purging the state’s voter rolls, to prevent undocumented individuals from voting. In that suit the plaintiff stated: “Defendants’ Purge Program is far from … a well-designed, well-intended list maintenance effort. It is an illegal, discriminatory, and error-ridden program that has directed the cancelation of voter registrations of naturalized U.S. citizens and jeopardizes the rights of countless others.”
Virginia is not alone in the effort to suppress votes in the 2024 election using vote purges. In early October, the state of Texas sent a letter to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting the federal government help Texas confirm the citizenship status of more than 450,000 of Texas’ registered voters. What triggered this request was the significant overall increase of voter registration on the last day of the state’s registration deadline. The Texas Attorney General (AG), who led this effort, based his request on the assumption that thousands of undocumented immigrants fraudulently registering to vote. The ulterior motive of the Texas AG is to suppress the Latino votes.
Correspondingly, one of the widely used forms of targeted voter roll purges is the practice of culling individuals with a past felony criminal record. In 2024, an estimated 4 million Americans, representing 1.7 percent of the voting-age population, will be ineligible to vote due laws that restrict persons with a prior felony conviction from voting. During an election year when democracy itself is at risk, the systematic exclusion of millions with felony convictions is a major concern. Especially since a disproportionate number of convicted felons are either African American or Latino and may likely be Democratic voters. This is an incentive for Republican led states to purge them from voter rolls —even after they have paid their debts to society.
Voter roll purges have had a significant impact on suppressing the votes of targeted groups, including Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans. These purges often disproportionately affect these communities due to several factors:
- Error-Prone Processes: Voter roll purges frequently rely on flawed data and matching criteria, leading to the erroneous removal of eligible voters. For example, in the infamous Florida purge of 2000, many eligible voters were wrongfully removed due to poor matching criteria.
- Lack of Transparency: The process of purging voter rolls is often conducted without sufficient oversight or public scrutiny, making it difficult to identify and correct errors.
- Disproportionate Impact: Studies have shown that voter roll purges and other voting restrictions disproportionately affect communities of color. For instance, strict voter ID laws and polling place closures tend to impact African American, Hispanic, and Native American voters more heavily.
Conclusion
As we are entering the final days of a momentous presidential election campaign, hopes of a free and fair election are waning. Two of the main devices for unfairly tilting the scales in favor of Republican candidates — namely racial gerrymandering and voter suppression— are being fully operationalized. As evidenced by DOJ’s legal challenge of Virginia’s recent voter roll purges, several key states are unhesitant about suppressing votes. In an election that is going to be decided by a relative “handful” of voters, such tactics must be immediately challenged.
Resources
Sentencing Project- Locked Out
South Dekota Voting Roll Purges
Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Virginia for Election-Integrity Efforts
