Blog Stage Three: The Voter Purges

In a commentary posted by the New York Times, author Vanita Gupta addresses the concerns she has about the letter sent by the Trump administration's election-integrity commission inquiring about the maintenance of voter rolls. Gupta appears to be knowledgeable and credible as she was a head of the civil rights division at Justice Department during the Obama administration and is currently the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Gupta claims the request, which supposedly was checking up on the compliance of 44 states with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, made by the commission is actually an attempt to purge voters, primarily minorities. She believes the commission will use the information they receive to find evidence of voter fraud, such as double-voters. However, this process will make it difficult to tell people with the same name and birthday apart, and since minorities of overrepresented in 85 of the 100 most common last names, they will receive the most damage from this “purge”. She seems to overstate this issue since the probability of people having the same first and last name,  as well as middle name, and the same birthday, is an extremely low probability. She then goes on to cite how there have already been lawsuits filed in Georgia and Ohio for earlier attempts of trying to prohibit voters. This evidence strengthens her case as the federal court ruled the voter purge in Ohio unconstitutional, showing there is a legitimate reason to be concerned about a voter purge. Gupta then focused in on Trump's team stating that one member, Ken Blackwell, has already attempted to prohibit voter registration by refusing to accept registration forms on account of the printed paper being too thin. Her scrutiny of Blackwell supports her argument that member on Trump’s team have malicious intentions.

Gupta ends her commentary warning those who are concerned about their personal information being leaked to not pull themselves off of voter rolls because they are afraid. She includes a cry to action to everyday citizens sympathetic to her cause and invites them to push back on the oppression brought forth by the Trump administration by organizing in their communities. I agree that voter purging is a serious and legitimate concern, however, the specific similar name and birthday situation she brings up weakens and draws away from her argument as it is too specific and too rare.