ACRU Salutes President Trump for New Commission on Election Integrity
“Vote fraud is a cancer on our democratic system.” -- Susan A. Carleson, ACRU Chairman/CEO
Notorious Mississippi County to Clean Up Voter Rolls
JACKSON, MS. (January 25, 2017) —- Election officials in Mississippi’s [...]
ACRU Asks Appeals Court to Restore Philadelphia Lawsuit
City ignores federal law, keeps thousands of felons on voter rolls.
Judge Denies Motion to Dismiss ACRU’s Broward Suit
The ACRU filed the lawsuit in June based on evidence that the county has more people registered to vote than the number of citizen age-eligible residents.
ACRU Sues Broward County over Inflated Voter Rolls
Florida's Second Largest County Has More than 100 Percent of Residents Registered to Vote. ALEXANDRIA, VA (June 28, 2016) --- The (ACRU) has filed a lawsuit alleging that officials in Broward County, Florida, have violated federal election law by failing to maintain accurate voter registration. "When a county has more people registered to vote than there are eligible residents, it's an open door for vote fraud," said ACRU Chairman/CEO Susan A. Carleson. "Corrupted voter rolls are the first step to vote fraud. Broward's Supervisor of Elections, Dr. Brenda Snipes, is not using all of the tools available to keep Florida elections clean." The complaint, filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation on ACRU's behalf on Monday, asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division, to find Broward's supervisor of elections in violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Motor Voter Law), "to implement reasonable and effective registration list maintenance," and to allow the ACRU to inspect voter records. The lawsuit notes that the county of nearly two million people, with a non-citizen population of 256,430, has removed only 18 people from the voting rolls over the last five years for lacking U.S. citizenship. Also, that 106 percent of county residents were registered to vote in 2010, and 103 percent in 2014. "Broward was one of four Florida counties that was asked to do a recount in the 2000 presidential election," Carleson said. "We think it's time they cleaned up their rolls before the next one." The case is and Andrea Frankel-Bellitto vs. Brenda Snipes. Andrea Frankel-Bellitto is a registered voter in Broward County. The ACRU is the only private party to successfully sue under Motor Voter to clean up county voter rolls, winning consent decrees in Texas and Mississippi.
ACRU: Voter ID Opponents Try End Run Around Court’s Shelby Ruling
ALEXANDRIA, VA (June 20, 2016) --- Opponents of North Carolina's voter photo ID law wrongly sought to use an illegal interpretation of the Voting Rights Act to attack North Carolina's election integrity law, the (ACRU) argues in a brief filed on June 16 at the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Regarding North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, et al. v. Patrick L. McCrory, et al., the brief, notes that a U.S. District Court rightly rejected the plaintiffs' claim that the law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which had required Southern states and other jurisdictions to obtain preclearance from a D.C.-based court panel or from the U.S. Justice Department for any changes in districting or voting laws. The Court said the requirement was based on obsolete data and was no longer necessary, but left intact Section 2, which empowers the federal government to address discriminatory voting conditions in the states. In the current case, the plaintiff attempted to make a purely statistical case of disparate impact that the law discriminates against minorities. The plaintiffs sought to use hair-trigger standards to strike down state laws that the Supreme Court invalidated in Shelby County. "The appropriate standard is one that looks to the totality of the circumstances, as expressed in Section 2, and does not use statistical disparities between groups of voters to establish liability," the ACRU brief says. The District Court's ruling upholding the law "is consistent with traditional Section 2 jurisprudence, does not conflict with Shelby County, and preserves the constitutional balance between states and the federal government," the brief states. "The opponents of common-sense voter ID laws are attempting an end run around the Supreme Court," said Susan A. Carleson, Chairman/CEO of the ACRU. "The District Court got it right, and we are confident that North Carolina's law will stand in the appeals process."
ACRU Sues Philadelphia over Voter Records
The ACRU is suing Philadelphia over city officials' refusal to open voter registration records for public inspection as required by federal law. In a complaint filed April 4 in U.S. District Court under Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Motor Voter Law), the ACRU seeks "specific records... to ascertain why Defendants have implausible percentages of active registrants as compared to age-eligible United States citizens who live in Philadelphia." Specifically, the ACRU seeks a court order finding the city in violation of NVRA, and requiring officials to allow inspection of voter registration records and the various means by which the city is supposed to be updating them. The ACRU had requested access to the records in a January letter to city officials. Philadelphia voter rolls have contained an implausible number of registrants over the years with the total registered nearly exceeding the number of eligible citizens in Philadelphia. The ACRU seeks to examine why this is occurring and what can be done to ensure that only eligible citizens are voting in Philadelphia elections
ACLU Sues Kansas over Proof-of-Citizenship Voting Law
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Tens of thousands of people in Kansas are being deprived of their right to vote, the American Civil Liberties Union argued in a lawsuit filed on Feb. 18 that challenged a state law requiring residents to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote. The suit is the latest to take direct aim at a three-year-old measure ushered into law by Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach, who has lobbied heavily over the years for measures that he said were needed to prevent non-citizens from casting ballots. The ACLU, arguing that fraud claims were unfounded, brought the class-action suit in federal court on behalf of six Kansas residents who said they were left off the voter rolls after registering at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. Passed by its Republican-dominated legislature five years ago, the law requires residents to show proof of citizenship when they register.
ACRU Wins Consent Decree in Third Mississippi County to Clean Up Voter Rolls
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 30, 2015) - The (ACRU) has settled its federal lawsuit against the Clarke County, Mississippi Election Commission, marking the third time a Mississippi county has agreed by consent decree to clean up its voter rolls. In July, ACRU, represented by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), sued the county because it has more voters on the rolls than living citizens. The lawsuit, filed by PILF and Mississippi attorney Henry Ross, alleged a violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which requires maintenance of accurate voter rolls. In 2013, the ACRU secured Section 8 agreements with Walthall and Jefferson Davis counties, and two weeks ago, on Nov. 12, sued a fourth Mississippi county, Noxubee, over its corrupted voter rolls. The agreement between the parties was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Hattiesburg Division, on Nov. 25. The agreement requires the Commission to begin identifying and removing voters who are no longer eligible to vote in Clarke County as early as April 2016. The ACRU originally notified the Commission by letter in June 2014 that its voter rolls were potentially in violation of federal election law. According to U.S. Census data and other public records, Clarke County, Mississippi had 12,646 registered voters, despite having a voting-age population of only 12,549. The Commission never responded to the notice letter. The agreement also requires the Commission to periodically notify the ACRU in writing about the Commission's efforts to clean up its voter rolls. "Corrupted voter rolls have been a problem in Clarke County for years," said ACRU Policy Board member J. Christian Adams, who is president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. "This settlement is a positive step towards a cure and should give Mississippians confidence that their legitimate votes will not be cancelled out by an ineligible voter." The Obama Justice Department has shut down enforcement of Section 8 of the NVRA and thus allowed voters rolls around the nation to remain corrupted and filled with ineligible registrations. The ACRU is the only private party under NVRA to successfully sue to clean up county voter rolls.
ACRU Sues Notorious Mississippi County
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 16, 2015) -- The on Thursday, Nov. 12, filed a lawsuit against a fourth Mississippi county for its corrupted voter registration rolls. This time, it was against Noxubee County, which has a long history of vote fraud and voter intimidation. As with the other three counties, voter rolls maintained by Noxubee contain more people registered to vote than citizens eligible to vote, according to the lawsuit, filed on ACRU's behalf by the Public Interest Legal Foundation. The complaint argues that Noxubee County's election commission is violating Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Northern Division. The ACRU's Mississippi legal campaign is having a demonstrative effect on other counties. New data show that since 2010, the number of counties with more registered voters than eligible residents has dropped considerably. In 2013, the ACRU won consent decrees in federal court for Walthall and Jefferson Davis counties to clean up their voter rolls. It was the first time in history that a private party had sued under the NVRA (better known as Motor Voter) and reached a consent decree to compel counties to clean up their voter rolls. In July, the ACRU sued Clarke County for having corrupt voter rolls. ACRU's review of databases revealed that as of 2015, more than 110 percent of Noxubee's voting-eligible citizens are registered. This strongly indicates the county has failed to purge the names of people who died, moved away or were convicted of disenfranchising felonies.