[EL] Security issues with revealing residential location

[Michael McDonald]

With regards to registered voters who move some little known provisions in
the NVRA and VRA are relevant...

The National Voter Registration Act provides for a procedure for registered
voters who move within a local jurisdiction to change their address and vote
on Election Day. Some states further apply these portable registration
procedures statewide under state law. I found a positive turnout effect for
movers of statewide portable registration, similar to the effect for
Election Day registration in Michael P. McDonald. 2008. "Portable Voter
Registration." Political Behavior 30(4): 491–501. I also found that these
procedures to not entirely mitigate the negative effect of moving on voter
turnout, suggesting that something about moving beyond registration
requirements lowers participation.

The 1970 Amendments to the Voting Rights Act allow movers -- who cross state
boundaries within the registration deadline for their new state -- to vote
for president and vice-president in their state of former residence, what is
often called "presidential ballots" in state law. Interestingly, early
adopting Election Day Registration states may have been responding to the
1970 VRA Amendment, prompting them revisit their voting procedures.

The relevant NVRA citations:

§ 1973gg–6(f) Change of voting address within a jurisdiction
In the case of a change of address, for voting
purposes, of a registrant to another address
within the same registrar’s jurisdiction, the registrar
shall correct the voting registration list
accordingly, and the registrant’s name may not
be removed from the official list of eligible voters
by reason of such a change of address except
as provided in subsection (d) of this section.

§ 1973gg–6(d)(2)(A) (2) A notice is described in this paragraph if it
is a postage prepaid and pre-addressed return
card, sent by forwardable mail, on which the
registrant may state his or her current address,
together with a notice to the following effect:
(A) If the registrant did not change his or
her residence, or changed residence but remained
in the registrar’s jurisdiction, the registrant
should return the card not later than
the time provided for mail registration under
subsection (a)(1)(B) of this section. If the card
is not returned, affirmation or confirmation of
the registrant’s address may be required before
the registrant is permitted to vote in a
Federal election during the period beginning
on the date of the notice and ending on the
day after the date of the second general election
for Federal office that occurs after the
date of the notice, and if the registrant does
not vote in an election during that period the
registrant’s name will be removed from the
list of eligible voters.

============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor, George Mason University
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

                             Mailing address:
(o) 703-993-4191             George Mason University
(f) 703-993-1399             Dept. of Public and International Affairs
mmcdon at gmu.edu               4400 University Drive - 3F4
http://elections.gmu.edu     Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Larry
Levine
Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2011 12:03 PM
To: JBoppjr at aol.com; douglasrhess at gmail.com;
Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Fwd: MAINE GOP UNCOVERS 19 ELECTION DAY REGISTRATIONS FROM
ONE MAINE...

My firm was running the campaign of a candidate in a hotly contested state
assembly race several years back. About two weeks before the election, one
of our staffers was at the registrar of voters office for some reason I
can’t recall. While waiting to receive the information he requested, he took
a look at the file of late registrations – the physical list of voters who
had registered too late to be added to the computer generated roles that
would be used on election day. He noted that some 3,000 of those
registrations were in the district in which our campaign was being waged and
they represented about 90% of the late registrations in the entirety of Los
Angeles County. We also sent staffers to a random selection of the address
of some 100 of those registrations. We found not one of them was legitimate,
so we call the matter to the attention of elections officials and the
district attorney. I suspected from the start that it was not part of some
scheme to steal the election, but rather was the work of someone who was
being paid piece meal to register voters. After the election we checked the
names of those 3,000 people and found that not one of them turned up to
vote. By the way, we lost the election by a large margin. So, do I think we
need to outlaw paid registration drives. NO. Those of us involved in the
process just need to be alert. In the case cited above and individual
eventually was identified as the culprit and was convicted of several counts
of I-can’t-remember-what. 
I cited the above as an anomaly. From my 41 years of experience in the
electoral process I believe that is true of almost all of the cases of
registration, or “voter fraud” that are commonly cited as the reasons for
enactment of policies to restrict the registration and/or voting process.
Others on this list have made compelling arguments for that position. I
agree with them. 
I do believe, however, based on evidence of actual experience, that the
process is open to substantial mischief on the part of elections officials
and partisans involved in campaigns. I was involved in one such campaign in
Brooklyn, NY in 1972, when a judge threw out the results of a Democratic
Congressional primary election and ordered the election re-held because of
“substantial mischief” by elections officers. 
Larry

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of
JBoppjr at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2011 4:35 AM
To: douglasrhess at gmail.com; Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Fwd: MAINE GOP UNCOVERS 19 ELECTION DAY REGISTRATIONS FROM
ONE MAINE...

Of course I don't know if this situation is true here or not, and maybe not,
but one of my experiences, that all seem to acknowledge and that I draw on,
is false registrations.  If they were false, it seems that requiring a voter
ID would likely prevent voting based on the false registration.  There are
many documented cases of false registrations, so why isnt this a remedy to
prevent voting based on the false registration?  And if the intent behind
false registration isn't voting based on them, what would it be?  Jim Bopp
 
In a message dated 9/10/2011 9:01:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
douglasrhess at gmail.com writes:
Thanks for Megan, et al. for following up on the ME case (or non-case). 
 
My first thought was that this was another example of ID proponents only
going with their own experience: most of us only stay at hotels for short
stays, so these people must be the same. My first thought was that these
were likely employees of some firm or business who were in the state for an
extended off and on again stay...maybe they knew they were going to be in
the state for the days/weeks around election in thought this was the best
way to vote. Or even campaign workers who decided that after several months
in the state they might as well vote there (nothing illegal about that...is
there?). My final thought was that homeless can use as their address a
location where they get mail, even if they don't sleep there. If the hotel
was in an area with lots of poverty, this address might serve that purpose. 
 
Lots of possibilities...did the GOP in Maine make a statement regarding the
explanation given my the Dems there? 
 
[Note: I cut the text from the thread because it was doing something odd in
gmail with the length of lines.]
 
-Doug
 
 


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