March 20, 2021

Countering Voter Purges

One of the major tools of voter suppression is the voter purge.

This voter suppression tactic takes advantage of the fact that there are many voters who are apartment dwellers. People who live in apartments move more often. If a voter does not respond to correspondence from the elections clerk, they are removed from the voter rolls.

There are also some voters who tend not to vote in mid-
term elections. If a voter does not vote in two federal elections in a row, they are kicked off the voter rolls. There is no historical evidence and no logical reason to believe that voters who move to a new apartment, or voters who sit out an election, are likely to commit voter fraud.

Purging voter rolls is a cynical attempt to disenfranchise voters. We can expect some politicians to continue to use voter purges to suppress the vote. Here is what each of us can do to counter this attack on voting rights.

• 1. Update the address in your voter registration whenever you move. Register2vote.org
• 2. Check your voter registration six months and two months before any major election (this gives you time to re-register in case you have been purged). Register2vote.org
• 3. Check the voter registrations of your family members six months and two months before any major election. Get your family members to re-register if they have been purged. Register2vote.org (This site will also help you apply to vote-by-mail)
• 4. Vote in every election (you should do this anyway because all of these elections are important). People who vote all the time are much less likely to be purged from the voter rolls.

–Kenneth Williams, President,

Dallas Chapter of Texas Alliance for Retired Americans