
Alarm over voter purges as 17m Americans removed from rolls in two years - 23throwaway23
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/01/voter-purges-us-elections-brennan-center-report
======
asaegyn
I don't understand how this isn't a bigger story. This purging is massive, and
smaller purging arguably had a bigger effect on the 2016 election than any
Russian interference.

It was most recently pulled off in Georgia as well:
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/10/georgia-
elec...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/10/georgia-election-
recount-stacey-abrams-brian-kemp)

In Georgia, Kemp won by ~58,000 votes, yet in a similar tactic, they:

> • In the three months leading up to election day, more than 85,000 voters
> were purged from rolls under Kemp. During 2017 668,000 voters were purged,
> according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

> • Of those 2017 numbers, investigative reporter Greg Palast told Salon,
> 200,000 people left the state, died or moved out their district, making them
> legitimate cancellations. However, through litigation, he got the entire
> purge list. “Of the 400,000 who supposedly moved, our experts will tell a
> court that 340,134 never moved – wrongly purged,” Palast told the Guardian,
> saying people had been purged for not voting in an election or two.

> • Furthermore from 2012 to 2016, 1.5 million voters were purged – more than
> 10% of all voters – from records, according to a 2018 report from the
> Brennan Center for Justice. In comparison, 750,000 were purged from 2008 to
> 2012.

~~~
reallydude
The article mentions a purge of 107k voters in, what I thought, was a
reasonable approach to regulating polls.

> In July 2017, more than half a million people were removed from Georgia's
> voter rolls. Of those, 107,000 were purged because they had decided not to
> vote in previous elections and they failed to respond to mailed notices from
> the state.

Ignoring notices from the state often have larger consequences than not being
able to vote in a specific district...where you can't prove you live. Even if
you were to vote in a general election, you could register without prompting
from the state. Ignorance of the law and such, the state did it's minimal
duty, in this case.

Given the disparity in numbers being thrown around, it's hard to know what's
factual and what's misconstrued. Either way, informed consent is what US
citizens seem to mobilize around. Getting cancer from eating sausage? Shoulda
said it was a danger on the box. Removed from the voting roster because you
didn't receive notice? Tough.

~~~
IfOnlyYouKnew
There is absolutely no purpose to these purges, except to stop legitimate
voters. Considering these are people who did not vote in some prior elections,
it seems unlikely that they would now suddenly start voting multiple times.
Plus, of course, in-person voter fraud is basically non-existent: there is
about one case for every ten million votes, and almost all of them are due to
negligence.

"It's the law" is also a strange argument when it's the law that's being
criticised.

~~~
smitty1e
I serve as a voting officer in my county.

The voter role is a database.

This is database maintenance.

It is necessary.

Every voter should verify that they are signed up to vote in the one (1) place
where they pay federal income tax.

People who have property in multiple states are among the weakest links in the
system, as getting an absentee ballot for a place where you have a legitimate
residence tends not to be hard.

~~~
23throwaway23
Did you read the article? It's talking about anomalous purging of voters.

~~~
dang
_Please don 't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read
the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions
that."_

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

