The right is purging voters

American Prospect - Voter purges are on the rise, thanks to a right-wing campaign to “clean up” voter rolls in places where Democrats and voters of color would be hardest hit.

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling to uphold Ohio’s controversial voter purge law spotlights the growing clout of right-wing “election integrity” groups that have aggressively bullied and sued states and jurisdictions into kicking thousands of voters off their rolls.

Such groups, which include the deep-pocketed legal outfit Judicial Watch, and the Public Interest Legal Foundation, headed by J. Christian Adams, a leading proponent of voter fraud myths, hailed the high court’s ruling in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute as a major victory. Both Judicial Watch and the PILF called on states to follow Ohio’s lead and “clean up” their voter rolls—a practice that in Ohio’s case has meant blocking thousands of eligible voters from casting ballots.

Cheering from the wings was Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a key architect of the Trump administration’s voter-unfriendly policies. The Justice Department, having sided against Ohio in the Husted case under President Obama, reversed course under Trump. The courts have thus far blocked Kobach’s efforts to require proof of citizenship for voter registration in Kansas, but his goal is to take that policy nationwide. The DOJ also wrote 44 states last year, demanding to know how they plan to remove ineligible voters from the rolls. That could signal a coming federal push for voter purges.