While Kobach Commission Bumbles, DOJ Sends Its Own Voter Suppression Signals

[turbinetree]

Source: Talking Points Memo

The voting rights community isn’t holding its breath for a “report” expected out of President Trump’s sham election commission that advocates predict will be used as a cudgel for restrictive voting laws. They already have a good idea of how the Trump administration, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, will seek to scale back access to the ballot with an approach that has its antecedent in the scandal-plagued Justice Department of George W. Bush.

It was signaled clearly in a under-the-radar letter sent by the DOJ to most states late last month. The letter did not get as much as attention as the wide-reaching data request from the Trump election commission—which is being led by Vice President Mike Pence and hard-right Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R)—but voting rights advocates told TPM they find it just as concerning, if not more so.


“It’s very clear the intent is to purge more and more groups who possibly don’t vote the way they want them to vote,” League of Women Voters President Chris Carson told TPM.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/doj-nvra-letter-voter-purge-signals

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I wonder if the little ass***** learned this from his Russian master friend(s), when they had there visits at the convention, after all he is a known liar, and you can't put anything past a known liar

[riversedge]

1. "asked states to hand over to the feds all information including statutes, regulations, written gui

This is serious stuff folks


...........Reading the cues in the letter, the National Voter Registration Act stands to be ground zero of the coming voter suppression wars, with experts predicting the feds will use it to pressure states into slimming down their registration rolls.

“It indicates that the focus of DOJ is going to be on pushing states to take more and more people off the rolls, instead of enforcing the provisions of the NVRA that assist voters in getting registered and staying on the rolls,” said Brenda Wright, vice president of policy and legal strategies at the progressive policy and legal group Demos.

The letter, dated June 28, asked states to hand over to the feds all information including “statutes, regulations, written guidance, internal policies, or database user manuals” that determine when a state removes from its rolls voters believed to be dead or have changed address. It cites the NVRA, also known as the “Motor Voter” Law, which sought to streamline the process for registering to vote at the DMV or other government agencies. The law also mandates a “reasonable“ standard of maintenance states must undertake to keep their registration rolls up to date.

Tellingly, the Justice Department letter focused only the latter provisions, and signaled no concern as to whether states were doing enough to make it easy to register, as the bulk of the NVRA dictates................

[DK504]

3. Under what guise can they purge the voter rolls?

What is the criteria they can use to steal our right to vote? Honestly I have no idea how they continue to get away with this.

[broadcaster90210]

6. Because SCOTUS has never ruled ....

there is a constitutional right to vote.

[NastyRiffraff]

4. This is EXACTLY how dictatorships begin

Meaningful voting rights are the first to go.

[SpankMe]

2. Fighting voter suppression should be one of the top 5 priorities of the DNC. n/t

[broadcaster90210]

5. Our system of government no longer works.

Ultimately, we need a major overhaul ... and soon.