Campaign Legal Center (CLC) wrote to election offices in 11 states explaining how to navigate “mass voter challenges” that threaten to undermine Americans’ freedom to vote in the November election.
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 These mass challenges are often based on faulty data sets containing inaccurate or outdated information and, if successful, can lead to voters being unjustly removed from the rolls.
These challenges have a long history of targeting 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.
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.
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.