[EL] entrapment & noncitizen voter registration

[Candice Hoke]

Re: 
> Credible NBC Report of Non-Citizen Voting in Florida
> 
> Very interesting report which requires further investigation.
> 

One of my student election law papers this year basically argued that NVRA's requirement of Govt officials to "offer" to non-citizens voter registration and encouragement to register but without providing the essential notice that only citizens can legally register = entrapment in States that criminalize non citizens' voter registration.

Another of my Election Law students currently has a client facing deportation for committing the Ohio crime of registering to vote at the motor vehicle bureau when a government official urged his registration, but provided no notice @ citizens only requirement of state law.

As Rick's link to the FL story indicates, the "good" of NVRA is counterbalanced for some with this dangerous externality:  generating criminal liability for those who have not been informed of "citizen only" voter registration and lack the qualification.  

More NVRA litigation is undoubtedly on its way.  Perhaps a consent decree, with a proviso about standard notifications re citizens only (to all applicants, not profiled) may help correct the situation.  But I would argue the status quo is entrapment   






Professor Candice Hoke
Law School
Cleveland State University
216 687-2313

shoke at law.csuohio.edu

Disclaimer:  Any opinions I may have expressed are my own and do not reflect the positions of any university, State or Federal institutions, boards, or committees with which I may be affiliated, although I may wish that they did.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20120203/a697feb6/attachment.html>