Can I Be Registered To Vote In More Than One State?

It's not just Trump'south administration: Thanks to voting rights protections and federalism, many Americans are registered in more than one state—whether they know it or not.

By Jack Denton

(Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images)

With a fiery tweet Wednesday forenoon, President Donald Trump reignited his crusade against the specter of voter fraud he believes to be haunting our balloter system. Promising a "major investigation into VOTER FRAUD," Trump focused his ire on those who are registered to vote in multiple states.

Beyond the wastefulness of an investigation into a non-issue—researchshowsthatvoterfraudalmostneveroccurs—Trump's focus on double registration became especially curious after reporters discovered that members of his assistants and family are registered to vote in two states. First, a reporter at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune uncovered that Stephen Bannon, senior adviser to the president, was registered to vote in both Florida and New York.

Steven Mnuchin, Trump's nominee for secretary of the treasury; White House counselor (and Trump'southward son-in-law) Jared Kushner; and Offset Daughter Tiffany Trump were too all registered to vote in two states, as CNN, the Washington Post, and Heatstreet reported, respectively.

The national press took justifiable pleasure in pointing out the hypocrisy of Trump's investigation plans, but confusion virtually duplicate registrations is understandable. While voting in multiple jurisdictions or precincts in the aforementioned election is illegal, being registered in multiple states is not. In fact, across the United States, having multiple voter registrations is fairly common. A 2012 study conducted by the Pew Middle found that at least 2.75 million people were registered to vote in more than ane land, likely the result of moving from one state to some other. But why practise these outdated registrations persist when someone moves to a new state and becomes registered to vote there?

Bannon reportedly sent a letter to the Sarasota County elections supervisor in November, asking to be removed from the country's voter rolls, but was not removed until his registration status became a national media story this calendar week. As Bannon's saga illustrates, voting rights protections and the not-coordination of state elections authorities conspire to make information technology hard to ensure that a person is registered in only i state following a move across state lines.

A 2012 written report conducted by the Pew Eye found that at least 2.75 million people were registered to vote in more than ane country.

This is partly considering 1993's National Voter Registration Deed, which codified many of the practices of voter whorl maintenance, left the practice most entirely upward to the states. The Help America Vote Act, passed in 2002 in an attempt to prepare some of the voting problems (both existent and imagined) of the 2000 ballot, required states to go on centralized voter registration databases, simply did not mandate inter-state sharing. The federal government still does non maintain whatsoever national voter registration database, and few states cantankerous-reference their voter rolls to avert duplication. Political consulting firms (and hackers) may be the only ones to aggregate nationwide voter registration data.

The NVRA also mandates that states remove people who have died or moved from their voter rolls. The legislation provided nebulous guidelines for this "voter purge" procedure, however, and subsequentupdates to the guidelines accept non clarified much. A 2005 Election Assist Commission report recommended that states "coordinate with relevant federal databases, such as the U.S. Postal Service National Modify of Address and Social Security Death Index databases," when maintaining voter rolls, and the federal government's voting help website claims that, "when you annals to vote in a new location, you'll exist asked for your previous address. Your new ballot role volition send a counterfoil form to your previous election office."

Withal, information technology appears that almost states carry out neither of these practices consistently, if at all. Voter purge processes are largely under the purview of local and land ballot boards, whose methods vary widely. In 2016, for example, the New York City Board of Elections came under fire afterward over more than 117,000 voters were purged from Brooklyn'due south rolls without notice.

Voter purges oft disproportionately affect minorities and the young; the roll maintenance process is, equally described past the Brennan Center, "shrouded in secrecy, prone to error, and vulnerable to manipulation."As WNYC reported, for example, the Brooklyn purge removed Hispanic voters at a much higher charge per unit than voters in other demographic groups. Political parties sometimes appoint in "voter caging," sending mail to a targeted groups of constituents, and using the letters returned equally undeliverable to endeavor to disenfranchise voters who are likely to be unfavorable to their candidate or party. In 2008, lawsuits in Michigan and Colorado ruled that massive voter caging efforts were a violation of the NVRA requirements.

Implemented carefully, a more explicit and nationally unified arrangement of voter registration and purge guidelines could assistance prevent both voter suppression and duplicate registrations. However, many of the duplicate registrations are a necessary consequence of regulations that provide safeguards against voter suppression. And, inarguably, there'due south no reason for Trump to fret over indistinguishable registrations anywhere, whether by members of his administration, his family, or Hillary Clinton voters in New York and California.

Can I Be Registered To Vote In More Than One State?,

Source: https://psmag.com/news/why-are-so-many-people-registered-to-vote-in-multiple-states

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