Elections Commission Works To Keep Voters Registered Post-Purge

The state Elections Commission is trying to ensure efforts to update voter rolls don’t disenfranchise anyone, after some people discovered during last month’s primary that their registration information had been removed.

The commission in January deactivated registrations of 308,000 voters that the state Division of Motor Vehicles address data showed had moved without updating their registrations. During the Feb. 20 primary the commission got calls from clerks saying some voters had been removed even though they insisted their registrations were valid.

The commission investigated about 30 instances and found reasons for the discrepancies varied. In some cases DMV officials mistakenly changed addresses.

The commission voted Friday to give clerks lists of purged voters and allow people to sign an affirmation that they haven’t moved, lettings them vote without re-registering.