Voting Rights Act Snafu: Texas Citizens Removed from Voter Registration Rolls for Being Dead, Although They are Still Living
by Ashley Matthews
In the midst of a national debate over the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, Texas has shaken things up once again with its latest effort to revise the state’s voting procedures. This time, more than a few Texas citizens were shocked to find out they couldn’t vote – because they had been declared dead. Seeing as how they were still alive, this presented a major problem.
From Bloomberg Businessweek:
Texas officials were temporarily barred by a state judge from ordering county election officials to purge presumably dead voters from registration rolls because the initiative may violate the election code.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed yesterday by four voters who were told they would be purged from voter-registration lists as deceased. They asked state court Judge Tim Sulak in Austin to stop the state from striking about 77,000 names, arguing the plan violates state and federal law.
The secretary of state is “restrained from further instructing the counties to remove any other names from the voter rolls,” Sulak said in an order. “Plaintiffs are entitled to temporary injunctive relief.”
The voters’ Lawyers say that under the federal Voting Rights Act the state must get pre-approval for the rule changes. The law mandates that jurisdictions with a history of rights violations first get clearance for new election procedures from the U.S. Justice Department or a three-judge panel.
“There is no statutory authority for this purge,” David Richards, a civil rights lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview while waiting for the judge to rule.
Texas recently lost a federal court of appeals case striking down the state’s voter identification law passed by the Texas Legislature last year. This lawsuit is only one of multiple court battles being fought over voting rules in swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.