A decision by the Republican-controlled Shelby County Election Commission to purge inactive voters from the voter registration rolls has at least one local activist worried that certain Democratic voters will wind up disenfranchised.
The election commission has stripped close to 60,000 inactive registered voters from the books since January, a move election commission officials say is standard practice after a presidential election.
"After every presidential election, there are folks who have been inactive for two elections and they are purged," said election commission administrator Richard Holden. "It's just a normal cleaning of the rolls.... It's going on all over America in compliance with the laws."
Those laws, he said, guide the election commission to remove someone from the voter registration rolls if they don't vote in two consecutive presidential elections, or anytime between, and fail to communicate with the election commission about their inactivity.
Holden insists that purging doesn't target any particular demographic. Those inactive voters are also encouraged to re-register.
But Republicans hold a three-two majority on the Shelby County Election Commission, and some have complained that purging may disproportionately cut the number of Democratic and African-American voters eligible to cast a ballot in the special mayoral election Oct. 15.
Joseph Kyles, vice president of the Memphis chapter of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, said "when a particular party gains access to an election commission, there have been examples where there are obstacles to the party of the opponent.
"The real question is, what's the criteria and how do they go about purging?" Kyles asked. "I don't know the benefits from purging directly after a presidential election.... Why were they purged directly after the historic election of Barack Obama?"
Kyles said his group is monitoring the election commission's removal of names from the books to make sure voters receive proper notification and don't "incur any obstacles" when they go to cast their ballot in October.
Many of us, well-informed, thought that the Democrats were far too lax in purging the rolls in accordance with the laws, to accomodate those who move around a lot and pretend to live with relatives, that sort of thing.