Pearl River The ACORN Voter Purge Project is now in the process of emailing more than 2 million voters that have been made inactive and purged in battleground states. Georgia and Pennsylvania are the first drops currently on their way out. The emails link the voter to the Secretary of State’s website in order to re-register or cure the error in the purge.
A VPP team in the Atlanta area successfully completed 75 home visits with voters that were on the Georger voter list as purged and were able to confirm in 74 cases that in fact the purge lists this year were much more accurate. The voter had either moved or passed away. This compares to 2020, when a similar VPP team found more than one-quarter were valid voters who should not have been purged. From this sample, it seems that Georgia, under the microscope throughout the country for purges and a critical battleground state, has in fact taken steps to clean up its act. We pray this is the case. ACORN VPP representatives are doing a similar test in the Philadelphia area now as well.
Voter registration in the red states, given the complications and confusion in the process, has become precarious. Leaders from Louisiana’s A Community Vote, affiliated with ACORN, have been doing registration including at local colleges, like Xavier, with students. People want to register and are excited about the election, so members report signing up people has been easy, but in talking to organizers there continues to be concern in the maze of rules and restrictions, whether every “i” has been dotted, and every “t” crossed. Reading the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website, it’s easy to see why they are worried about these new, first-time voters and what will happen to them when they go to vote in November.
Here’s how new Secretary of State Nancy Landry describes the process:
You must have a valid Louisiana driver’s license number or Louisiana special ID card and a residence address in Louisiana to register or make changes to your existing registration online. If registering to vote and if a Louisiana driver’s license number or Louisiana special ID card number has not been issued, you may complete the online form, print the form and submit the form by mail to the Registrar of Voters in the parish in which you reside. You must provide at least the last four digits of your social security number, if issued. The full social security number may be provided on a voluntary basis. If neither a Louisiana driver’s license, a Louisiana special ID card or a social security number have been issued, and the form is submitted by mail, and you are registering to vote for the first time, in order to avoid additional identification requirements for first time voters, attach either 1) a copy of a current and valid photo identification or 2) a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address. (emphasis added)
Reading the instructions, it’s all easy, if you have a LA driver’s license or LA ID. It also says you can register without one, by providing part or all of your social security number. Clear so far. If you have trouble online, you can download, print, and mail. That’s also straightforward. It also says if you are a first-time voter, you can “avoid” problems when you register or vote by having some kind of photo ID or (not and) something else from a recognized utility, bank, employer or whatever or government document with your name and address. The problem is that as clear as all of this sounds, when you keep going to register online the Secretary of State then no longer mentions that a social security number in whole or part works for you. Furthermore, the submission section claims no changes can be made, when of course, if you have printed the form, why not?
All of this has confused both potential voters and those doing registrations. Perhaps other states do not contradict their own instructions on their websites, like Louisiana seems to be doing? Let’s hope so, but the announced project of the Republican Party and many red states has been to restrict access to the ballot. Furthermore, their antipathy to young, student voters has been well-documented. Whether Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, or other states, new rules and registration requirements are having a chilling effect.
The only thing crystal clear to me is that in a democracy, voting is supposed to be a right for citizens. There’s no excuse for making it so hard.