The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Latino Justice PRLDEF [advocacy websites] on Wednesday announced [press release] a settlement [consent decree, PDF] with New York City Board of Elections (NYCBOE)[official site] to end their voter suppression suit filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official site].

The consent decree requires the NYCBOE to develop and implement uniform policies and procedures that ensures, among other things, that: 1) voters are not removed from voter registration lists solely by reason of the voter’s failure to vote; 2) any voters who are improperly removed are restored to their prior registration status except for those who are currently registered to vote; and 3) voters who are removed from voter registration lists on grounds of a change of
residence are only removed in compliance with the requirements set forth in Sections 8(b)-(d) of the NVRA and Article 5 of the New York Election Law.

The suit was filed last November after New York purged over 100,000 voters during the election cycle. The plaintiffs in the case alleged that “the procedures employed by the NYCBOE to remove the names of the individual plaintiffs, members of Common Cause New York, and similarly situated voters, from New York City’s official list of registered voters, violated Sections 8(a) and 8(d) of the NVRA, 52 U.S.C. § 20507(a), (d).” The parties to the suit now agree that this suit should be settled to avoid further costs of litigation. To that end, the decree further states:

Within 90 days of the effective date of this Consent Decree, the NYCBOE shall review every voter registration removed from its registration lists between July 1, 2013 and the effective date of this Consent Decree, and shall identify any voter improperly removed from voter registration lists in violation of Section 8 of the NVRA or Article 5 of the New York Election Law. Upon identifying a voter improperly removed from the registration list, the NYCBOE shall immediately reinstate that voter’s registration, excepting any voter who subsequently re-registered to vote or was restored to and remains in active status prior to the effective date of this Consent Decree.

The decree is still pending court approval.