Secretary of State agrees to end voter purge programs

The state of Michigan has agreed to permanently end two practices that illegally removed people form the state list of qualified voters.

According to a settlement filed in the U.S. District Court in Detroit, the state of Michigan will no longer automatically cancel the voter registration of people who receive drivers licenses in other states. It will also stop removing people from the voter rolls when their voter ID cards are returned due to problems with the mail.

Voting rights groups say that these voter removal programs had a particularly detrimental impact on students and minority and low income communities because students often have divers licenses from other states and students and poor people tend to move more, making it more difficult to reach them by mail.

“The affirmative steps Michigan is taking will help restore confidence in an electoral process badly damaged by misguided practices that would have shut out lawful voters from the democratic process,” Meredith Bell-Platts, an attorney with the ACLU Voting Rights Project said in a statement. “The people of Michigan can now be assured that their votes will be counted regardless of whether the postal service could match your street address or when and where you got a driver’s license.”

In a statement, Yvonne White, president of the NAACP Michigan State Conference said that the resolution of the lawsuit in advance of the 2010 elections will help eliminate voter confusion, particularly in communities of color.

“We are very proud to have helped facilitate this important settlement agreement that ends the disfranchisement of thousands of our members and Michigan citizens,” White said.

According to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 the state must verify that a person has moved out of state before canceling their voter registration and must keep voters on the qualified voter file for at least two election cycles after their voter registration cards are returned as undeliverable.

Shortly before the 2008 presidential election U.S. District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy ordered the Secretary of State’s office to stop its practice of removing registered voters from the voting rolls when their voter ID cards are returned as undeliverable and to restore the records of voters removed for this reason.

Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land appealed Murphy’s order but it was upheld by the federal appeals court.

Writing for the majority, Justice Karen Nelson Moore said:

“Because the risk of actual voter fraud is miniscule when compared with the concrete risk that Michigan’s policies will disenfranchise eligible voters, we must conclude that the public interest weighs in favor of denying the stay of the preliminary injunction.”

According to the terms of today’s settlement, the Secretary of State admits no wrongdoing and asserts that the agreement was entered into for the sole purpose of resolving the dispute about the voter purge practices.

The Secretary of State agreed to provide written notice of the settlement to all county, city, township, and village clerks within seven days.