The Independent View: NY Inactive Voters Court Case Update

In going over the Case: Common Cause New York v Brehm, s.d., 1:17cv-06770, The earlier part of the Decision says the State’s Laws on Inactive Voters are Not in Conflict with Federal Law, But the Judge allowed the Case to continue with how New York Applied the Law. Inactive Voters in many Polling Places were Not given Affidavit Ballots.

One reason for this Problem is that in New York, the Names of Inactive Voters do Not appear on the Poll Book containing a List of only Active Registered Votes inside the Precinct. The Voter Names Do appear on the State’s Computerized List of Registered Voters, but that is not much help at the Polling Place, because the State Computerized List isn’t On-Hand in the Precinct Polling Place.

One Option to Fix this Issue is when EPoll Books are used, is to store both Lists.

Federal Law requires that All Registered Voters be permitted to Vote. Federal Law does Not Permit Removal of Voters from the Voting Rolls Except for:

- Confirmed Information of Death

- Voter has Moved and Registered Elsewhere

- There is Evidence that the Voter has Moved such as Returned Mail or Voter is on USPS List of Persons Moving. In this case, Local Election Officials are Required to Send a Forwardable Confirmation Postcard to the Voter. If the Voter has Moved within the Registrar’s Jurisdiction, their Address is Updated. Otherwise, the Voter is Informed how to Register in their New Location. A Voter who does Not Return the Postcard, they are Classified as Class I (Inactive). A Class I Voter then can be Removed from the Voting Rolls if they Don’t Vote for Two Federal Election Cycles.

In most States, a Class I Voter is Handed some Form of a Ballot, and will be Returned to Class A (Active). New York has Adapted a Procedure for Handling Persons who aren’t in the Poll Book, and Vote with a Provisional Ballot.

In some States may Not even have a Notation in the Poll Book that a Voter is Class I. They’ll ask the Voter if they still live at their Address in the Roll Book, and have them Sign their Name. Most Voters won’t realize the Legal Consequences of Signing their Name.

But in New York, a Voter would be told that they Weren’t in the Poll Book. What happens next may depend on the Voter, the Election Clerk, the Length of Lines, etc. As of 4/1/2018 there are 12,396,403 New York Registered Voters with 1,092,925 in Inactive Status.