TWEET THREAD (1/8) 📢 OUR NEW RESEARCH on voter purges — when election officials remove names from voter registration lists — has alarming findings, with major implications for the integrity of our #democracy: bit.ly/2O3bCAw
(2/8) Almost 4 million more names were purged between 2014 and 2016 than between 2006 and 2008 — 33% growth, much higher than the growth in eligible voters and in the larger population.
(3/8) Purge rates have increased more in states that, due to their history of #racialdiscrimination, were previously subject to federal "preclearance," a practice that ended with the 2013 #SCOTUS decision Shelby County v. Holder.
(4/8) Since 2013, eight states have either engaged in illegal purges or used purge policies that violate federal law. nyti.ms/2O2V9ML
(5/8) Some states are using notoriously unreliable databases to flag potentially ineligible voters. One of the most prevalent, Crosscheck, is run by the official who formerly headed President Trump’s “Voter Fraud” Commission.
(6/8) A new set of activist groups is pressing for aggressive purges by hauling local election officials into court, claiming that their purge practices aren’t zealous enough.
(7/8) We propose these recommendations:
✅ enforce the protections in the National Voter Registration Act
✅ set state-level purging standards that provide additional protections
✅ pass automatic voter registration
NEW REPORT: The National Task Force on the Rule of Law and Democracy releases a new report designed to turn what have traditionally been unwritten rules and norms of government behavior into commonsense, bipartisan laws. bit.ly/2Ot9cyk
It is time to turn soft norms into hard law. The Task Force — chaired by former U.S. Attorney @PreetBharara and former New Jersey Governor @GovCTW — recommend taking the following steps.
Proposal 1: Modernize financial disclosure rules to prevent self-dealing and corruption.
This year, Americans like you can play a vital role in the fight to #ProtectTheVote by asking your state and local election officials if they are following the steps below! bit.ly/2yuLScq
Step 1: If your jurisdiction uses electronic voting machines, ask if local officials provide each polling site with enough emergency paper ballots for 2-3 hours of peak voting in case of machine malfunctions or failures.
Step 2: If your jurisdiction uses electronic pollbooks to check voters in, ask whether local election officials keep paper backup of electronic pollbooks in the polling place.
(1/7) Countering Violent Extremism programs already harmed minority communities without providing any national security benefit. A new Brennan Center analysis shows that the Trump administration has made the problem far worse. bit.ly/2ybLgbG
(2/7) These programs unfairly target Muslim and minority communities as inherently susceptible to terrorism. They conflate community services and intelligence gathering, often under false pretenses, undermining trust between law enforcement and communities.
(3/7) Under the Trump administration, CVE programs now explicitly operate on the bizarre assumption that diversity and the experience of discrimination in America are suggestive of a national security threat.