August 17, 2007 at 08:39:55

DOJ's Selective Prosecution of the National Voter Registration Act

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Section 8 and Section 7 also have a different purposes and mandates. Section 7 directly addresses one of the reasons for the NVRA that even the Missouri Court recognized - increasing voter participation. Section 7 also requires more than a “general program” and “reasonable effort”. It says that “[a]t each voter registration agency, the following services shall be made available” [emphasis added] and then lists each of the steps that must be made to offer the client an opportunity to register to vote. Unlike Section 8 open ended mandate, this is a clear, easily enforceable requirement that Congress intended each state designated public assistance agency to comply with.

The Missouri case, as interpreted by the Ohio Court, is very problematic. Advocates of voter rights have to hope that the neither case is picked up by other jurisdictions as a way for states to pass on their responsibilities under Section 7.

The outcome of the appeal of the Ohio case is not certain. However, because the facts and law are stronger than in the Missouri case, it is the appeal that should proceed. On the other hand, because of unfriendly findings of fact and the general language in Section 8, an Appellate Court would be more likely to uphold the Missouri District Court decision. That would expand the jurisdiction covered by the decision and make it a more powerful precedent in future litigation.

The Department of Justice’s decision to appeal the decision despite the fact that Missouri has done an adequate job of maintaining accurate voter lists and there is no fraud, demonstrates once again that it is still interested in voter suppression and partisan attacks. This is especially true when there is strong evidence that Missouri is failing to comply Section 7, a responsibility of a Republican governor and yet the Department is taking no action to enforce that obligation.

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