On July 24, several groups that conduct voter registration drives filed a lawsuit against New Mexico restrictions. A 2005 New Mexico law made it a crime for someone to fail to turn in a completed registration form within 48 hours after it comes into his or her possession. The 2005 law also limits groups that register voters to only 50 voter registration blank forms. The lawsuit was filed by the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Federation of Women’s Clubs Overseas, New Mexico Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and the Southwest Organizing Project. The case is American Assn. of People with Disablilities v Herrera, state court, Bernalillo County, cv 2008-07673.
Usually, laws that inhibit voter registration groups are passed by Republican state legislatures. The New Mexico law is unusual because it was passed by a Democratic-controlled state legislature, and signed by a Democratic Governor, Bill Richardson.
It seems funny that Republicans try to inhibit voter registration, but is it because Democrats manage to bring to the polls voters who have been dead for years?
When I first got involved in politics, it was the norm that anyone who didn’t vote for, say, two elections in a row, or two presidential elections in a row, was “purged,” to use the technical term.
Apparently now purging is illegal, because those dead people are not only still allowed but encouraged to keep on voting.
The Chicago rule? Why should a person become disenfranchized just because they are not breathing on a regular basis?
The federal Motor-Voter Law of 1993 specifically lets the states purge voters who haven’t voted for two important elections in a row and who don’t respond to a postal inquiry.
All this talk of dead voters voting is beside the point. In every state, when a death certificate is prepared for an in-state resident who died, a notice of that certificate is sent to the elections officials who maintain voter registration rolls.
Doesn’t the Motor-Voter law require that the deceased be offered the opportunity to register when the death certificate is filed?