Concerns Raised Over New Voter Roll Cleanup Law

Voting rights groups say Hoosiers could be improperly thrown off Indiana’s voter rolls under a bill set to take effect next month.

Indiana uses what’s called the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck each year. It looks for voters who moved to another state.

New legislation makes it easier for counties to remove voters they find in that system. Counties must first check whether a voter registered in another state is the same one registered in Indiana. The county can then remove that voter from the rolls if the registration in the other state happened after their Indiana registration.

But the Brennan Center for Justice says there’s a couple problems with that. Brennan Center counsel Jonathan Brater says the Interstate Crosscheck system has produced troubling results in other states.

“When Virginia used the list to remove voters in 2013, error rates as high as 17 percent were found,” Brater says.

And Brater adds states can’t remove voters from their rolls based on a check like that alone.

“The state still is required under federal law to contact the voter, give the voter the opportunity to respond,” Brater says.

The voter might never respond. Federal law says a state can delete the registration record in that case only after two federal elections.

Brater says he’s hopeful the state will work with the Brennan Center to ensure no voters are wrongfully deleted from the rolls.