SAN FRANCISCO — California is among several states at risk of preventing millions of eligible voters nationwide from casting their ballots on November 2nd due to non-existent or flawed procedures used by state election officials to purge felons from voter rolls, according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and Demos, a public policy organization.

“The act of voting, of having a voice in your own government, is a fundamental right in a democracy,” said Maya Harris, Racial Justice Project Director of the ACLU of Northern California. “But because California does not have standardized procedures or policies for purging felons from voter lists, thousands of legal voters- many of them people of color and women - may be disfranchised on November 2.”

Nationally, among Africans-Americans, 1 in 13, or 1.8 million people are disfranchised. Over 600,000 women are denied the right to vote, and over half a million veterans are disfranchised according to the report, “Purged! How a Patchwork of Flawed and inconsistent Voting Systems Deprives Millions of Americans of the Right to Vote.”

In California, the voting rights of convicted felons are suspended when the individual is in prison or on parole. Felony probationers may vote. The right to vote is automatically restored upon completion of sentence, but one must reregister. California has no statutory requirement to inform voters that their names are being taken off the voter list, or that they have already been removed. In 2000, 288,362 voters were disenfranchised.

The report shows that states, even those with identical disfranchisement policies, conduct purges very unevenly because of flawed or nonexistent legislative guidance. As a result, legal voters, including ex-felons who have had their voting rights restored, are mistakenly taken off of voter rolls.

The report is the first in the nation to examine the purge structures and procedures of 15 states, which represent the wide variety of disfranchisement laws. The ACLU surveyed the states’ election authorities and researched state laws to answer questions including how state elections officials “match” people with felony convictions against individuals listed on their voter registration list before purging them from the rolls, and whether states notify the individuals deemed a “match” that they will be or have been purged.

Among the key findings of the report:

• No Purge Criteria: No state surveyed requires its officials to use any specific or minimum criteria to ensure that an individual with a felony conviction is the same individual being purged from the voter rolls.
  
  
• A Limited Ability to Challenge Purges: Two-thirds of the states surveyed do not require elections officials to notify voters purged from the voter rolls, denying these voters an opportunity to contest erroneous purges.

The report also offers suggested improvements to purge procedures that would both benefit elections officials and protect legal voters from being erroneously purged. These improvements include:

• Mandatory Purge Criteria: Adoption of legislation that standardizes the criteria officials must use to match felons with voters, which would put states in compliance with the Help America Vote Act. Criteria should be numerous, and matches should be required to be exact and double-checked.
  
  
• Mandatory Notice & Challenge Process: Adoption of legislation requiring state officials to notify people, by certified mail, that their voter registration is in jeopardy because their voter registration data has been matched with the data of an individual with a felony conviction. Follow up notices should include reinstatement and/or re-registration information. The notice and challenge process should be completed by no later than 90 days preceding an election.

“If California is committed to protecting the right to vote, we must improve the state’s purge processes,” Harris said. “We hope that election officials in California will take action to ensure that all eligible voters are allowed to participate in the political process.”

Today’s report follows revelations in July that Florida’s felon purge lists – in an echo of the 2000 presidential election – again mistakenly contained the names of thousands of eligible voters. After the errors were publicized, and under pressure from the ACLU of Florida and other civil rights groups, the state withdrew its felon purge list. But under Florida law, county election officials may still purge voters based on their own, locally generated lists.

The “Purged!” report is the latest initiative of the Right to Vote Campaign, a coalition of eight national civil rights and public interest organizations including ACLU and Demos. Right to Vote came together in 2002 to work towards the end of felony disfranchisement through research, public education, voter registration and litigation.