WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California’s former Secretary of State, and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) hosted a virtual press call to announce new bicameral legislation aimed at preventing the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to purge state voter rolls and restrict […]
Can somebody ELI5 what that means? I’m just a dumb European!
Like many other things, in the US, voting isn’t managed centrally. Most voting is run by the county, or the city if it’s big enough.
Which means there are thousands of election commissions all doing things slightly differently, with massive differences in quality.
That being said, they all still follow the same laws, and voting discrepancies are very rare.
The GOP points to the discrepancies as proof of widespread voter fraud, and their proposed solutions are to remove large numbers of voters from the registration. Many voters in the US, such as poor, young, and minority groups, tend to vote less consistently than older, rich, and white voters, purging registrations of people who don’t vote consistently will tend to favor Republicans.
While removing someone from voter registration lists doesn’t mean they can’t vote, it does add additional steps to the voting process. Which makes people less likely to vote.
Also, some places require you to re-register at least a few weeks in advance of any election, so if they sent mail to an old address you never saw telling you your registration was deleted months ago but you only find out on election day when you go to vote you could be screwed no matter how badly you want to vote
I don’t know the inns and outs, so correct me if I am wrong, but it seems they are lists of eligible voters in a state/area.
The Trump administration wants to remove inhabitants on that list for arbitrary reasons, like not having voted the previous election (no matter the reason, illness or being abroad) or if you have moved within the state since the last vote so your adress no longer matches.
Ofcourse they preferrably want the removal to be done federally and not by the state, so they also get a list of who voted (or is registered) for what.