Advocates File Voting Rights Lawsuit in Washington Challenging Database "Matching" Requirements

Washington Breaks From National Standards For Voter Registration

Washington: Project Vote's continuing work to eliminate barriers to voter registration took another step forward when community organizations and advocates filed suit today challenging a 4-month old Washington law that improperly implements the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.

The lawsuit, the product of an on-going collaboration between Project Vote < http://www.projectvote.org/> and the Brennan Center for Justice < http://www.brennancenter.org/> at New York University, takes aim at a law (RCW 29A.08.107
< http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=29A.08.107> ) requiring the Secretary of State to match identifying information on a voter registration application--usually a drivers' license number, state ID card number, or Social Security number--to the corresponding government database. If a match cannot be made, and an applicant doesn't correct the situation within 45 days, the applicant is not registered.

Matching records between two large databases is an inherently flawed operation for a number of reasons, including:

* human error by government election workers, including misspelling of names, omitting or adding letters in a name, and transposing numbers in a Social Security or driver's license ID.
* Asian-Americans, American Indians, and Alaska Natives with names that are especially prone to multiple English spellings, or flipping of first and last names;
* married women who have taken hyphenated names or their husbands' inconsistent punctuation of names containing apostrophes or hyphens;
* computer errors caused by file corruption from computer viruses; and absence of uniformity in maintaining, storing, and transferring computer data.

Several reliable studies have found database matching error rates of approximately 20-32%.

Washington's law was enacted to implement the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. HAVA's matching requirement was designed primarily to assist in the elimination of duplicate registrations over time. Washington, unfortunately, interpreted HAVA's matching requirement in way that created new barriers to registration. Only six other states apply HAVA in a manner that similarly bars applicants who cannot be matched from registering.

The complaint alleges Washington's law conflicts with HAVA, violates the US Constitution, the Voting Rights Act
< http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/42usc/subch_ia.htm> and the National Voter Registration Act
< http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/42usc/subch_ih.htm> (NVRA).

Plaintiffs joining the complaint include: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now < http://www.acorn.org/> ("ACORN"), Washington Association of Churches < http://www.thewac.org/> , Service Employees International Union, Local 775 < http://www.seiu775.org/> ("SEIU"), Washington Citizens Action < http://www.wacitizenaction.org/> , Organization of Chinese-Americans (Greater Seattle Chapter)
< http://www.ocaseattle.org/> , Chinese Information and Service Center < http://www.cisc-seattle.org/> , Japanese American Citizens League (Seattle Chapter) < http://www.ryanminato.com/jaclseattle/> , and Filipino American Political Action Group of Washington.

Plaintiffs are represented by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
< http://www.paulweiss.com/Home.aspx> , based in New York City, represents plaintiffs as pro bono co-counsel.

Documents:

* Plaintiffs' Complaint
< http://projectvote.org/fileadmin/ProjectVote3/images/PDF/WAC_complaint.pdf >
.
* Coalition News Release
< http://acorn.org/index.php?id=4174&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=18634&tx_ttnews%5
BbackPid%5D=8306&cHash=b99b8f975b>
* Making the List: Database Matching and Verification process for
Voter Registration. Brennan Center for Justice
< http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/HAVA/svrd/SVRD%20matching%2
0report.pdf> . March 24, 2006.

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Alyssa Macy
Political Director
Center for Civic Participation
1313 SE 5th Street, Suite 113
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Direct: 612-331-7444

Please note: User comments reflect the opinions of the responsible contributor only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the Center for Civic Participation. The Center for Civic Participation does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting. The Center for Civic Participation is a 501(c)(3) organization and is prohibited from supporting or opposing candidates for office. The Center for Civic Participation reserves the right to edit or delete comments that may be considered offensive, illegal, inappropriate, or that may jeopardize the organization’s tax exempt status.