Court action has saved tens of thousands of New York voters from being purged from state voter rolls after a federal judge’s ruling Friday deemed they were illegally deemed inactive, according to a nonprofit civil rights organization that challenged state elections practices. Common Cause argued that the state “regularly removes voters from active status and places them on inactive status if it believes that the voter has moved,” but state elections officials were basing that understanding on U.S. Postal Service records that are often inaccurate. The practice disenfranchised thousands of New Yorkers, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan of the Southern District of New York determined.
“The Court concludes that New York's refusal to provide inactive lists at polling locations violates the Equal Protection Clause,” she said in the decision issued after a four-day bench trial in October. “The State is therefore ordered to provide the names of inactive voters registered to vote in a particular election district to the poll workers of that election district.” The ruling is the first time that a federal court has determined a voting restriction violates voters’ rights under the National Voter Registration Act, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said in a news release emailed to Daily Kos.
“This landmark decision tears down a wall that threatened to block millions of New York voters from the polls, and should also serve as precedent against efforts to suppress voting rights across the country,” said Kristen Clarke, who is president of the nonprofit organization. “Our democracy works when every legitimate voter can exercise his or her fundamental right and cast a ballot that counts. The Court’s decision reflects how New York’s antiquated voting laws and procedures have disenfranchised voters and that they continue to need reform.”
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, called the court ruling “a huge victory for New York’s voters.” “Purging thousands of New Yorkers is in clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act and we’re so thrilled the Court agreed,” she said. “Now, at every poll site throughout New York, inactive voters will no longer be denied their basic right to vote.”
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