Indiana Caught Illegally Purging 20,000 Voters – Are You One?
Check the Purge List and Re-Register
OCTOBER 9, 2018
Greg Palast
Indiana has purged no less than 20,000 voters in violation of a federal court order. Are you one? Check right now.
If you’re on the list, reregister immediately.
A team of database experts, statisticians, lawyers and investigators working with the Palast Investigative Fund discovered — and Indiana now admits — that these thousands of voters were cancelled in violation of a June 2018 federal court order that barred the state from using the notorious Interstate Crosscheck purge list sent to state officials by Kris Kobach, Secretary of State of Kansas.
The court order stemmed from a suit by the NAACP and League of Woman Voters against a 2017 Indiana law ordering counties to remove voters if they appear on Kobach’s list which purports to identify voters who have left the state. The NAACP and League cited the Palast team’s evidence in our 2016 Rolling Stone article showing that Crosscheck is overwhelmingly wrong in identifying voters who have moved — and extremely racist in operation.
Altogether, Indiana cancelled the registrations of a mind-boggling 469,000 voters, the majority using suspect methods.
The problems, say our experts, go way beyond the violation of the federal court order. A name-by-name analysis indicates the vast majority of the nearly half million purged remain Indiana residents who should not have lost their rights..
The Palast Investigative Fund, which obtained the list after sending a formal notice that, unless Indiana opens its files, the state will be hauled into another federal suit under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Indiana is one of 26 states receiving notice of suit resulting in a flood of responses now being analyzed by our investigations team.
Admission of violation of the court ruling
Rachel Garbus, researcher with Mirer Mazzocchi & Julien, our New York based attorneys, asked a top Indiana official for the reason our database experts found 27,000 voters purged whose names appeared on the Crosscheck list of voters who allegedly left the state. Post Office files indicate only 7,000 of them have moved.
The official agreed that the only reasonable explanation was a violation of the court order against using Crosscheck, though he considered the error inadvertent.
“I’m just speculating, but it is possible that some counties used the 2017 legislation so were cancelling voters using that method.”
Asked if this violated the federal court order, the official, whose name we are withholding, stated: “Yes, I’m not sure, but the county elections officials follow the law, so if that’s what the law said, then it’s possible that’s what they were doing.”
The official’s “speculation” is doubtless correct as there is no other explanation for the wrongful purge of over 20,000 citizens other than a violation of the court order overturning that 2017 law.
The Palast team and our lawyers are considering our next steps.
In the meantime, we will continue to release purge lists as states surrender to our lawsuit threat (after they have been analyzed and prepared for public review).
I am sorry that many lists are on the last days of registration or after the final date. We have been demanding this data for several months.
https://www.gregpalast.com/indiana-caught-illegally-purging-20000-voters-are-you-one/
October 10, 2018 - 04:07 PM EDT
53K voter registration applications on hold in Georgia: report
BY EMILY BIRNBAUM
More than 53,000 voter registration applications, a majority of them from black voters, are on hold in Georgia one month before the midterm election, according to a new Associated Press report, as the battle over voter registration becomes a bigger issue in the state's heated governor's race.
Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams and voting rights groups are blaming her opponent in the race, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, over the hold up.
Kemp's office oversees elections in Georgia, and she argues he has enacted policies meant to suppress minority votes.
Kemp contends that Abrams and liberal groups are playing political games a month before the election.
A spokeswoman from Kemp's office told The Hill that the applications are being held due to the state's "exact match" law, which passed last year. The law requires an applicant's information to match exactly what is listed by the state's Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration.
According to the legislation, if an applicant’s information on a voter registration form results does not match the information in a federal or state database, the applicant’s status is "pending."
If an application is marked as "pending," the voter registration database produces a letter, giving the applicant 26 months to provide up-to-date information. Applicants who have been flagged can mail in a copy of "eligible identification" or present it at the polls.
Voting rights advocates have claimed Kemp's "exact match" law discriminates against black and minority voters. They point to the racial makeup of the list of stalled voter registration applications, which is 70 percent black, according to AP.
Georgia's population is about 32 percent black, according to U.S. census data.
Abrams in an appearance in August on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” called Kemp “a remarkable architect of voter suppression.”
Kemp says less than 1 percent of applications failed verification and were held up.
Kemp's campaign spokesman Ryan Mahoney said in a statement to the AP that because of Kemp, “it has never been easier to vote in our state.”
“Kemp is fighting to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure that only legal citizens cast a ballot,” he added.
Kemp also blames a voter registration project launched by Abrams for racial disparities on the list of voter registration applications.
He told the AP that the New Georgia Project, which Abrams headed as Georgia House minority leader in 2013, was disorganized when it sought to register large swaths of the state's population.
The New Georgia Project targeted black voters.
Kemp's office said the disparity could be explained by "the higher usage of one method of registration among one particular demographic group," according to the AP.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia in August accused one of the state's counties of trying to make it harder for African-Americans to vote when the Randolph County elections board closed seven of its nine polling locations.
Abrams is the first African-American woman to be nominated by a major party to run for governor. The two are running in a tight race, considered a "toss-up," according to a RealClearPolitics average of polling data.
This story was updated 10:45 p.m.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/410839-53k-georgia-voter-registration-applications-on-hold-in-kemps-office-report
Check the Purge List and Re-Register
OCTOBER 9, 2018
Greg Palast
Indiana has purged no less than 20,000 voters in violation of a federal court order. Are you one? Check right now.
If you’re on the list, reregister immediately.
A team of database experts, statisticians, lawyers and investigators working with the Palast Investigative Fund discovered — and Indiana now admits — that these thousands of voters were cancelled in violation of a June 2018 federal court order that barred the state from using the notorious Interstate Crosscheck purge list sent to state officials by Kris Kobach, Secretary of State of Kansas.
The court order stemmed from a suit by the NAACP and League of Woman Voters against a 2017 Indiana law ordering counties to remove voters if they appear on Kobach’s list which purports to identify voters who have left the state. The NAACP and League cited the Palast team’s evidence in our 2016 Rolling Stone article showing that Crosscheck is overwhelmingly wrong in identifying voters who have moved — and extremely racist in operation.
Altogether, Indiana cancelled the registrations of a mind-boggling 469,000 voters, the majority using suspect methods.
The problems, say our experts, go way beyond the violation of the federal court order. A name-by-name analysis indicates the vast majority of the nearly half million purged remain Indiana residents who should not have lost their rights..
The Palast Investigative Fund, which obtained the list after sending a formal notice that, unless Indiana opens its files, the state will be hauled into another federal suit under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Indiana is one of 26 states receiving notice of suit resulting in a flood of responses now being analyzed by our investigations team.
Admission of violation of the court ruling
Rachel Garbus, researcher with Mirer Mazzocchi & Julien, our New York based attorneys, asked a top Indiana official for the reason our database experts found 27,000 voters purged whose names appeared on the Crosscheck list of voters who allegedly left the state. Post Office files indicate only 7,000 of them have moved.
The official agreed that the only reasonable explanation was a violation of the court order against using Crosscheck, though he considered the error inadvertent.
“I’m just speculating, but it is possible that some counties used the 2017 legislation so were cancelling voters using that method.”
Asked if this violated the federal court order, the official, whose name we are withholding, stated: “Yes, I’m not sure, but the county elections officials follow the law, so if that’s what the law said, then it’s possible that’s what they were doing.”
The official’s “speculation” is doubtless correct as there is no other explanation for the wrongful purge of over 20,000 citizens other than a violation of the court order overturning that 2017 law.
The Palast team and our lawyers are considering our next steps.
In the meantime, we will continue to release purge lists as states surrender to our lawsuit threat (after they have been analyzed and prepared for public review).
I am sorry that many lists are on the last days of registration or after the final date. We have been demanding this data for several months.
https://www.gregpalast.com/indiana-caught-illegally-purging-20000-voters-are-you-one/
October 10, 2018 - 04:07 PM EDT
53K voter registration applications on hold in Georgia: report
BY EMILY BIRNBAUM
More than 53,000 voter registration applications, a majority of them from black voters, are on hold in Georgia one month before the midterm election, according to a new Associated Press report, as the battle over voter registration becomes a bigger issue in the state's heated governor's race.
Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams and voting rights groups are blaming her opponent in the race, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, over the hold up.
Kemp's office oversees elections in Georgia, and she argues he has enacted policies meant to suppress minority votes.
Kemp contends that Abrams and liberal groups are playing political games a month before the election.
A spokeswoman from Kemp's office told The Hill that the applications are being held due to the state's "exact match" law, which passed last year. The law requires an applicant's information to match exactly what is listed by the state's Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration.
According to the legislation, if an applicant’s information on a voter registration form results does not match the information in a federal or state database, the applicant’s status is "pending."
If an application is marked as "pending," the voter registration database produces a letter, giving the applicant 26 months to provide up-to-date information. Applicants who have been flagged can mail in a copy of "eligible identification" or present it at the polls.
Voting rights advocates have claimed Kemp's "exact match" law discriminates against black and minority voters. They point to the racial makeup of the list of stalled voter registration applications, which is 70 percent black, according to AP.
Georgia's population is about 32 percent black, according to U.S. census data.
Abrams in an appearance in August on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” called Kemp “a remarkable architect of voter suppression.”
Kemp says less than 1 percent of applications failed verification and were held up.
Kemp's campaign spokesman Ryan Mahoney said in a statement to the AP that because of Kemp, “it has never been easier to vote in our state.”
“Kemp is fighting to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure that only legal citizens cast a ballot,” he added.
Kemp also blames a voter registration project launched by Abrams for racial disparities on the list of voter registration applications.
He told the AP that the New Georgia Project, which Abrams headed as Georgia House minority leader in 2013, was disorganized when it sought to register large swaths of the state's population.
The New Georgia Project targeted black voters.
Kemp's office said the disparity could be explained by "the higher usage of one method of registration among one particular demographic group," according to the AP.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia in August accused one of the state's counties of trying to make it harder for African-Americans to vote when the Randolph County elections board closed seven of its nine polling locations.
Abrams is the first African-American woman to be nominated by a major party to run for governor. The two are running in a tight race, considered a "toss-up," according to a RealClearPolitics average of polling data.
This story was updated 10:45 p.m.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/410839-53k-georgia-voter-registration-applications-on-hold-in-kemps-office-report