Hmmm...
Here's a different view on it, from a New Orleans paper:
http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/viewStory.cfm?recID=20031
Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne deleted nearly 20,000 former Louisiana residents from voter rolls Aug. 15 after finding they had registered to vote in other states.
The former residents were all dropped for the same reason — dual registration, said secretary of state spokesman Jacque Berry.
“This had absolutely nothing to do with Katrina. This is a completely different issue,” Berry said. “We found a certain number, which ended up being around 55,000 voters who we think may have been the same as voters registered to vote in another state.”
The 20,000 dropped voters were all confirmed as being registered in more than one state, while the remaining voters will be purged in future registration sweeps, Berry said.
“If the voters are not registered in another state, it’s perfectly within their rights to never step foot in this state again but continue to vote through absentee by mail,” he said. “Or they can come back for the elections and vote. As long as they maintain their residency here and not register in another state, they have every right to continue to vote in Louisiana. But once they register in that other state, that’s when it becomes an issue.”
Orleans Parish Clerk of Court Arthur Morrell questions the timing and fairness of the registration sweep.
“You still have people out that want to come back to New Orleans that can’t come back because of one of who knows how many reasons,” Morrell said. “If what they (the secretary of state’s office) are doing is following the law as far as voter registration and eligibility, then I can’t do anything about that. But people would still like to participate and have some sayso on who they want to represent New Orleans or be their elected official.”
Berry said nearly a dozen neighboring states such as Texas and Mississippi generate a lot of absentee voters for Louisiana elections and were contacted to determine if their registered voters also appeared on Louisiana lists.
Morrell said new voters who have turned 18 since evacuating to another state after Katrina should have the ability to submit absentee votes by mail, just like the children of military personnel are allowed, without having to come to New Orleans to vote the first time.
“It’s not fair,” Morrell said. “I think the timing is bad with this big election coming up.”
All new voters registered in other states since Sept. 1, 2005, were examined regardless of reason, Berry said. If a name showed up on more than one list, the person received a letter instructing them to present proof of residency in their home precinct to the appropriate registrar of voters within 30 days to avoid being deleted, Berry said.
A second letter was later sent giving the voters 21 more days to prove residency.
“We didn’t even look at the day the voters registered in another state. We just looked at everything from that date (Sept. 1) on,” he said. “There were a lot of them who, when we sent them a letter, said they thought they would have immediately been canceled in Louisiana when they registered in another state. But since there’s no national voter database, that’s not the way it happened.”
Registrars ask new voters where they last registered and contact that state to avoid dual registration. But it doesn’t always happen, Berry said.
More than 6,700 former Orleans Parish voters were also registered in another state, which Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters Sandra Wilson said probably resulted from the availability of voter registration forms when citizens apply for a driver’s license in a new state.
“There are people who registered to vote using that motor voter system, and they aren’t even aware that they are registering to vote in another place,” Wilson said. “That happens all the time. A lot of people have called us and said they haven’t registered to vote only to find out that they did through the motor voter system.”
Registrar of Voters Administrative Supervisor Darlene Landry said her office processes at least 1,000 voting applications per day looking for irregularities such as dual registration.
Louisianians who have not voted in the two most recent federal elections are placed on the inactive list, which has up to 6,000 inactive voters, Landry said.
Inactive and absentee voters differ from those registered in two states because they still have the constitutional right to vote, Berry said.
Berry said the voters will continue to be deleted from Louisiana rolls if they are registered in another state.
“This is the first wave of this process,” he said. “Our goal is ending dual enrollment to the best of our ability.”
