CLC Provides 11 States with Resources on Mass Voter Challenges
Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted letters to local election offices in 11 states on how to navigate mass voter challenges that threaten to undermine Americans’ freedom to vote.
“Our democracy works best when every American can participate in it,” said CLC’s Senior Vice President Paul Smith. “Election officials across the country are busy working to ensure that our elections continue to be safe and secure, and these unfounded challenges are a waste of time and valuable resources. It is our hope that these letters can help equip officials with the tools needed to ensure a free and fair election this November.”
Background:
Laws in nearly every state allow private citizens to challenge their peers’ voter eligibility. These mass challenges are often based on faulty data sets containing inaccurate or outdated information, and if successful can lead to eligible voters’ removal from the rolls, preventing them from participating in an election in which they are legally entitled to vote. These challenges have a long history of targeting recently naturalized U.S. citizens, voters of color, student voters and voters with disabilities. Partisan groups use these laws as tools to undermine Americans’ freedom to vote based on meritless allegations, such as a voter’s change of address.
In 2022, Georgia’s Gwinnett County Board of Elections received challenges to the eligibility of some 37,500 voters—more than 6% of the county’s total registered voters, and more than three times the 2020 margin of victory in Georgia. This year, election officials in counties across the country, including in Georgia, Nevada, and Ohio, have already begun to receive similar challenges.
Mass challenges have been weaponized by partisan actors to threaten their peers’ right to vote without cause in an effort to manipulate election outcomes. Processing frivolous mass challenges also creates significant administrative burdens for election officials, many of whom are already working diligently to carry out other critical tasks in the weeks preceding Election Day.
As the Department of Justice recently explained, federal law protects voters from having their registration cancelled on the basis of frivolous mass challenges made without sufficient evidence. Election workers can do their part to protect the rights of voters in their jurisdictions by providing challenged voters with adequate process before cancelling their registration or rejecting their ballots, including notice of any challenges made and a meaningful opportunity for the voter to refute the alleged grounds for the challenge.
View the letters below:
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