Indiana’s purge law lacks safeguards to prevent removal of eligible voters; district court had issued summary judgment against the state.
Yesterday the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in League of Women Voters of Indiana v. Sullivan (previously called Indiana NAACP v. Lawson), rejecting the state of Indiana’s appeal of the lower court’s summary judgment order. The Court of Appeals found that Indiana’s purge law was inconsistent with the federal Motor Voter law, legislation that Congress passed in 1993 to increase voter registration across the country. While that federal law, the National Voter Registration Act, could be improved, it continues to block state legislation that undermines voting access.
Indiana’s purge law would have allowed the state to remove Indiana registrants from the list of eligible voters without direct communication from the voter and without following the notice and waiting period required by the National Voter Registration Act.
“We won again in this four-year-old lawsuit on behalf of Indiana’s voters,” said Barbara Bolling-Williams, president of the Indiana State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “The laws Indiana passed in 2017 and 2020 risked improper purges of Indiana voters, particularly Black and brown voters. This decision is a win for democracy and racial justice.” Continue reading.