Voter Suppression Update – Voter Registration Deadline Nears

In a setback for voting rights, a federal judge has rejected a lawsuit aimed at forcing GOP Secretary of State Michele Reagan to send out notification letters to 380,000 voters whose registrations she refused to automatically update when they updated their address with the state Department of Transportation. The plaintiffs had argued this was a violation of the National Voter Registration Act, commonly called the “Motor Voter” law, but the judge held that the plaintiffs failed to show they were harmed by Reagan’s actions. The plaintiffs have yet to signal if they will appeal.

Voters are now on their own to make sure their voter registration matches their driver’s license. If you know someone who has moved – or if you have — please check your voter registration and get it changed by the deadline, which is Oct. 9!  In addition to checking at that online link, you can go to the County Elections Office at 110 E. Cherry or the branches at the Flagstaff Mall (near J.C. Penny’s or in Tuba City at 78 Main Street.

Current Republican Secretary of State Michele Reagan — who lost her primary race — will leave a legacy of voter suppression. In 2016, she failed to mail voter information pamphlets to over 200,000 voters.  The Republican nominee to succeed her is even worse. Read about Steve Gaynor.  Let’s elect Katie Hobbs as Secretary of State to encourage voter participation instead of suppressing the vote!

It’s not clear if the plaintiffs in the Arizona case will appeal. A Missouri federal court reached a different result in a similar case.  Unlike the defeat in Arizona above, a federal district court ruled on Friday that Missouri’s Republican election administrators had indeed violated the NVRA by failing to update voter registrations for those who had changed their address with a state driver’s license office. The court ordered officials to mail notices to roughly 40,000 voters who had changed their address but hadn’t had their voter registrations automatically updated.

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