GOP fails to convince judge to purge Michigan voter rolls weeks before the election
The Republican National Committee went to court in Michigan demanding that, just days before the general election, the state be forced to purge the voter rolls.
The RNC along with Michigan voters Jordan Jorritsma and Emerson Silvernail sued in federal court to force the rolls to remove individuals they took issue with. It's one of several states where GOP leaders are working to purge the data.
In March, the Brennan Center for Justice said that voter purges are nothing more than an effort at voter suppression.
Read Also: The Purge is real: Inside the GOP's 2024 playbook to disenfranchise voters
"A challenge alone should not, in theory, prevent someone from voting. But it can kick off an investigation that results in removal from the rolls if the citizen fails to respond to inquiries — in other words, if they miss a piece of mail," the report said.
The court documents said, "Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief for an alleged violation of § 8 of the [National Voter Registration Act], which requires States to 'conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.'"
As it stands, Michigan is one of the states that uses a system called ERIC, or the Electronic Registration Information Center. It's a cross-state database that allows voter rolls to be updated regularly. So, if a voter moves from Michigan to Wisconsin and reregisters, it would show the change so Michigan could purge the vote.
"As other circuits have observed, the NVRA's objectives — easing barriers to registration and voting, while at the same time protecting electoral integrity and the maintenance of accurate voter rolls — can sometimes be in tension with one another," the court said in the 30-page ruling.
The judge agreed with the motion to dismiss requested by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
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