http://www.freep.com/article/20081013/NEWS15/81013077Judge orders 1,435 names restored to voter rolls
BY DAVID ASHENFELTER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • OCTOBER 13, 2008
A federal judge in Detroit today ordered state elections officials to halt one of two methods for purging voters from Michigan’s computerized voting rolls.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III ordered state officials to immediately halt its practice of cancelling the registrations of people whose voter identification cards are returned as undeliverable by postal authorities. He said state officials must restore the names of 1,435 people who have been removed from the rolls under this method since Jan. 1, 2006.
He said a second practice – removing the names of people who apply for driver’s licenses in other states also is illegal, but may affect only a handful of people. He said the plaintiffs and defendants in the lawsuit must figure out how to deal with that problem as the lawsuit proceeds.
The ACLU of Michigan and a national student group sued Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land last month to halt both practices on the grounds that they violate the National Voting Rights Act.
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