NAACP seeking to block Louisiana voter registration purge News
NAACP seeking to block Louisiana voter registration purge

[JURIST] The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) [advocacy website] has filed a lawsuit challenging Louisiana's efforts to remove people from the state's voting list because they have registered in other states following Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. In its lawsuit, filed Thursday, the NAACP argues that the Louisiana secretary of state's efforts to purge the voter rolls have not received approval from the US Department of Justice as required under the 1965 Voting Rights Act [DOJ materials].

Earlier this summer, Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne [official website] notified voters whose names appeared on other states' voting rolls that they would be removed from the list of eligible voters in Louisiana if they failed to cancel the non-Louisiana registrations. Over 53,000 voters received notice that they risked being purged from Louisiana's list and state officials said earlier this month that nearly 22,000 people had been dropped from the list. AP has more.