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Correcting an Error Turnout: How'd We Do w/ Voters Purged by ERIC and NCOA Errors [1]
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Date: 2023-03-27
I get some reactions from commenters how inspiring or successful Hope Springs from Field PAC’s efforts have been, and i admit i remain kind of surprised by those. There’s a lot of work to be done (it’s hard to convey how far Democratic party field organization or voter contact efforts have collapsed over the last decade, not just because of covid but also because of stagnation or even calcification within local and/or state Democratic party orgs). Sometimes i feel like a (campaign) organization evangelist, urging people to join their local party orgs, if only for the purpose of renewal. And i say this even knowing about people’s bad (occasionally just downright awful) experiences trying to help their local or state Democratic orgs (we faced our own difficulties in one of the states we canvassed in last cycle); it’s hard to see a path to creating a permanent Democratic majority without strengthening the Democratic party through renewal. See, evangelist.
Which is a long preamble for this diary about the final results of our efforts in Georgia and Wisconsin to re-register voters who had been thrown off the rolls, specifically finding out whether those voters had been successful in casting a ballot last November (and the runoff, in the case of Georgia).
In the middle of June, 2021, the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, announced he removed 101,789 people from Georgia's voter files, a majority (67,286) of them based upon the USPS National Change of Address database. Obama alums in Wisconsin (and Illinois) had experience with voters being wrongfully removed from voter rolls using NCOA back in 2012 and so Hope Springs from Field PAC immediately started included adding those addresses in with our regular weekly voter targets when we were knocking on doors in Georgia. Right off the bat we found issues.
In August, 2021, the Wisconsin Elections Commission removed roughly 206,000 people from voter rolls in the state as part of routine list maintenance, including about 30,000 voters who were part of a high-profile conflict ahead of the 2020 presidential election. 174,307 voters were removed from the rolls because they had not voted in four years, as dictated by state law. Another 31,854 voters were removed who were on a 2019 voter list that spurred a lawsuit that went all the way to the state Supreme Court. As mentioned above, this spurred additional emphasis for our weekly walk lists.
But we incorporated those former voters into our existing canvassing efforts each weekend. A major element of that plan was to include our search for wrongly excluded voters in our messaging at the door. “We are asking these questions because we know that Republicans have tossed people off the rolls — primarily African-Americans.” We let everyone know about the search, and why. For example, in our very first outing in Albany, Georgia we found someone who had been removed from the rolls because he didn’t own a motor vehicle.
States participating in ERIC (like Georgia and Wisconsin) can compare voter list data, motor vehicle data, change of address data, and death records to keep voter rolls more accurate and up-to-date.
So, because he had been through a divorce, changed his address and they couldn’t find a registered vehicle still at that address, ERIC assumed that no one by that name still lived at that address. You should be able to understand that this voter wasn’t too pleased, not only to be removed from the voter file but also because of the reason it happened.
But we also discovered other reasons, as well. Older Georgians who never moved apparently got removed because they had never provided the Registrar’s office with “the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security Number.” They had never been asked (presumably, this was before records went digital). Fail safes were blown past because they didn’t apply to voters went they had registered to vote there. The final fail safe, of course, is the post card that is supposed to be sent to voters before they are actually removed. Direct mail pieces that many people discard without any thought.
We ended up registering a lot more people who either needed to update their voting address or had never registered than finding voter wrongly included on the purge lists. But when we did find voters who could no longer vote, we not only registered them, we also created a “Wrongly Included” Report, documenting their residence at where the state claimed they no longer resided. These reports were defensive in nature, not only for the voter but also lawyers who might be able to use this documentation to defend voter rights and protections in the state.
Just as importantly, we found volunteers liked the idea of chasing down people who had been removed from the voter rolls, at least in the manner in which we conduct the search. Volunteers would come and specifically ask for the walk lists that included purged voters. I can’t explain why, and we didn’t create special lists; we simply marked it when there was a voter who had been purged from the rolls. But because we were telling everyone we talked to that we knew that there are people in their neighborhood who had been callously removed, neighbors were often willing to share what they knew. In one apartment complex, a voter was removed because his apartment number was not included in the database. More to the point, his number was included on his voting registration card, but just not on the state’s voter database. And it was hard for the voter and the volunteer not to jump to the conclusion that, “It’s because I’m Black, isn’t it?”
Hope Springs Voter Protection observation table w/ NGE list
Hope Springs from Field also included these addresses in our Spring and Summer canvassing in 2022. Furthermore, we made these lists available (which were public) to our Black Church partners as well as our Voter Protection observation tables that we set up outside of polling locations (some of whom had our poll watchers inside of them) in the primaries. More than a few of these churches had Elections Committees established and some of these went the extra mile to reach out of these addresses to determine for themselves that they were correctly or incorrectly included on these voter exclusion list.
Finally, the purge lists were central to our Voter Protection tables before the primaries. Every VP table we set up in Wisconsin and Georgia had a print-out (often, more than one) of local people who had been registered to vote who had been purged. And we did find family or neighbors who knew people on the lists and offered up information. At least one (perhaps two) voter brought the disenfranchised former voter back to the table.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights. We are thinking how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2024electionprotection
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters).
In all, we found 319 people who have been removed from Georgia’s voter rolls who still lived at the same address. We found 592 people who had been purged in Wisconsin. From our canvassing efforts, and (especially) from information derived from neighbors, we found more people who had moved and were able to register them (857 in Georgia, 385 in Wisconsin).
Out of the 1,176 purged voters we found and registered in Georgia, 599 voted in the general election (50.9%) but only 39% voted in the Runoff. By contrast, 57.58% of the voters we helped get Photo IDs in southern Georgia turned out in the general election and 45.18% in the Runoff. Out of the 977 purged voters we were able to locate and register in Wisconsin, 438 (38%) cast a ballot that counted In November.
Again, we found differences in turn out when we broke down the numbers. 68% of the purged voters (all African-Americans) who had mentors in Georgia voted in the general election, 46% in the Runoff. In Wisconsin, although with fewer raw numbers, 50% of purged voters (all African-Americans) who had mentors in Wisconsin voted in the general election.
But we found that making these purge lists known, either to the Black Churches we were working with in Georgia and Wisconsin or at our Voter Protection tables, increased interest. Although we were (then and still are) pursuing a “super compliance” strategy, getting people engaged can be easier when they feel aggrieved. And we have found that by tracking down disenfranchised voters and then re-registering them with tracking information (including witnesses) makes it easier. I have seen reports of people who have been wrongly purged taking a couple of years to get back on the voter rolls by themselves.
These “Wrongly Included” reports and documentation were also included in our visits to local District, State and County Attorneys as well as the Dep’t of Justice Civil Rights Division where we also delivered the Incident Reports we had collected. We wanted to make everyone aware that we suspect Republican poll watchers, especially of the Election Denier persuasion, might try to make an issue of people who voted who were included on the purge lists.
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2024electionprotection
Thank you for your support! This work depends on you!
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/27/2160437/-Eric-NCOA-Wrapup
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