Editor’s Note
I didn’t fall off — somebody pushed me.
Less than two weeks ago, I found out I had lost my active voter registration status when I threw my mail that day on my living room coffee table. Amidst a heap of credit card bills and grocery store advertisements was a folded postcard. I probably would have thrown it away had it not been folded in half.
Out of curiosity, I unfolded the postcard and there it was in plain type: Inactive. It stated that I would need to update my new address to get my active voter status back.
New address? I had moved nearly two years ago and still reside in King County.
Nevertheless, some official within the Washington State Secretary’s Office I presume sat around just weeks before the general election with a coffee in one hand and with the other, pushed me – and more than 400,000 other registered voters in the state of Washington according to reports – from the list of eligible, registered voters.
The same week, a celebration of sorts hit the headlines: Washington’s registered voters had reached record numbers, surpassing 2004 levels that hovered above 3.5 million. I had no party favors or horn to blow.
But misery loves company, and according to a Brennan Center for Justice report, I was not alone. In fact, I was surrounded by convicted criminals and dead people.
The non-partisan public policy at the New York University school of Law focuses on fundamental issues of democracy. Providing one of the first systematic examinations of the largely unseen world of voter purges, the report states that there are several types of voting purges, including death, disenfranchised criminal convictions, duplicate records, voting inactivity, incapacitation and the lesser of the purging evils, a change of address.
Under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), state and local officials can purge, or remove, citizens from the voter rolls. If done properly, purges are an effective way to ensure that voter rolls are up-to-date.
But notifying me of my inactive voting status only weeks before the general election, and nearly two years after I moved, does not see effective – or fair, or democratic. As an eligible voter, my basic right to vote was jeopardized.
Luckily for me, I received my inactive notice on the cut-off day to register to vote online. I was able to change my voting status to active.
For the hundreds of thousands of other disenfranchised eligible voters, you still have until 6 p.m. Oct. 20 to register in person.
If you are unsure of what your voting status is, go to the King County Web site at www.kingcounty.gov/elections/voting.aspx. Simply type in your name, date of birth and hit “submit.”
To register in person, go to the King County Elections Office, headquartered in Renton at 919 Southwest Grady Way. Call them at 206-296-VOTE (8683), or 800-325-6165.
Whether we, the vanishing voters, have been lost to a so-called partisan manipulation or ineffective laws, we cannot count on the system to stop this unacceptable violation of America’s democratic principles.
We only have the self initiative to push back.
