On Sunday, September 30, U.S. District Court Judge Alison J. Nathan, an Obama appointee, refused to dismiss the lawsuit Common Cause New York v Brehm, s.d., 1:17cv-06770. The lawsuit had been filed in 2017, alleging that New York polling place officials frequently tell inactive votes who arrive at the polling place that they are not registered. Both federal law and New York law provide that when an inactive voter arrives at the polling place, he or she must be told about the chance to vote using an “affidavit ballot.” This term seems to mean the same thing as provisional ballot in other states. Here is the 30-page opinion. See the last section of the opinion, starting on page 25. The earlier part of the decision says the state’s laws are not in conflict with federal law, so the only part of the case remaining is the as-applied portion.
One reason for this problem is that in New York, the names of inactive voters do not appear on the poll book, the list of registered votes inside the precinct. The names do appear on the state’s computerized list of registered voters, but that is not much help at the polling place, because the state computerized list isn’t on hand in the precinct polling place.
The decision gives the plaintiffs a chance to prove that their allegations are correct, and keeps the case alive. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
Federal law requires that registered voters be permitted to vote. Federal law does not permit removal of voters from the voting rolls except for confirmed information of death, voter has moved or registered elsewhere OR there is evidence that the voter has moved such as returned mail or voter on USPS list of persons moving. In this latter case, local election officials are required to send a forwardable confirmation postcard to the voter. If the voter has moved within the registrar’s jurisdiction, his address is updated. Otherwise, the voter is informed how to register in his new location. A voter who does not return the postcard is classified as Class I. A Class I voter may be removed from the voting rolls if they don’t vote for two federal election cycles.
In most states (48?) a Class I voter is handed a ballot, and will be returned to Class A. New York has adapted a procedure for handling persons who aren’t in the poll book, and vote provisionally.
The judge ruled that New York may be in technical compliance with the federal law, killing the facial challenge.The as applied challenge continues because it may have the effect of discouraging voters.
Some states may not even have a notation in the poll book that a voter is Class I. They’ll ask the voter if they still live at 123 Oak, and have them sign their name. Most voters won’t realize the legal consequences of signing their name. But in New York, a voter would be told that they weren’t in the poll book. What happens next may depend on the voter, the election clerk, the length of lines, etc.
I don’t know what percentage of Class I voters actually show up to vote. But in a corrupt state, the poll books may be regularly messed up. Election clerks may be used to many voters not being listed. But if the poll book is accurate and Class I voters who actually show up to vote are rare or uncommon, clerks may be more dismissive.
The terms active and inactive are so misleading, I use the terms Class A and Class I.
One more reason to have the R word or Civil W-A-R II ???
The EVIL rotted HACKS can NOT even pass SANE laws regarding Elector registrations.