Part of running a fair election is knowing who the voters are. That means keeping an accurate list of who is eligible to vote. That has proved to be a difficult task in many states – including New York, where a spectacular meltdown angered thousands of voters and inflamed partisan passions during the state’s April presidential primary. The problems in New York City are part of a much larger issue. A 2012 study by the Pew Center on the States found that 24 million voter registrations were wrong or invalid. That’s one in every eight voters across the country, which translates to a lot of voting roll problems. In the run up to the election, the New York City Board of Elections mistakenly purged more than 120,000 voters from its rolls in Brooklyn, ten percent of the active registered voters.
In what was one of the most fiercely fought and closely watched primary contests in a generation, especially among Democrats in New York, news of the purge exploded on social media and spilled over into Primary Day when the state attorney general’s office reports it received more than 1,000 complaints from voters — more than six times the number received in the 2012 general election.
The news was first reported by WNYC two days before the primary based on an analysis of state voter enrollment statistics. The number of purged voters then doubled the day before the primary, based on additional information from the New York City Board of Elections.
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Full Article: Why Voter Rolls Can Be A Mess | WPPB.