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US District Court Rules In Favor of LWVIN, NAACP and Brennan Center for Justice

Linda Hanson - CoPresident - LWV Indiana | Published on 8/21/2020

It's time to celebrate at least one victory for Indiana voters!  The US District Court of the Southern District of Indiana just issued an order – WE WON! 

As many of you know, the League of Women Voters of Indiana and the NAACP have been plaintiffs in a suit that prevents election officials from cancelling the registrations of voters identified by the flawed Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck system as having registered in another state – without providing notice and a waiting period, as mandated by federal law. The use of Crosscheck was part of a bill SEA 442 that the Indiana General Assembly passed in 2017.  Attorneys from the Brennan Center for Justice have moved this through the courts for us. They got an injunction that prevented the use of Crosscheck through the November 2019 election (http://tinyurl.com/yxhkj4j2) but the legislature then passed SEA 334 replacing Crosscheck with a similar Indiana-yet-to-be-developed program.   

The Court agreed with us that SEA 334 violates the National Voter Registration Act in the same way as SEA 442 because it permits removal of registered voters from the rolls without direct contact with the voter and without the Notice-and-Waiting period.  

 As a result, the Court issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Indiana election officials from implementing SEA 334 §§ 5.5(d)–(f) and prohibiting them from otherwise removing any Indiana registrant from the list of eligible voters because of a change in residence without: (1) a request or confirmation in writing directly from the voter that the voter is ineligible or does not wish to be registered; or (2) the NVRA-prescribed process of (a) notifying the voter, (b) giving the voter an opportunity to respond, and (c) then waiting two inactive federal election cycles.

The permanent injunction against implementation of SEA 334 is a victory for Hoosier voters.  


Celebrate!

Linda


League of Women Voters of Indiana

Co-President

Linda Hanson