A Virginia judge set a precedent in voting rights victories Wednesday when she handed down her decision in Project Vote v. Long, granting our Motion for Summary Judgment and ensuring that the commonwealth complies with the public disclosure requirements of the National Voter Registration Act. Such requirements are an important safeguard for the voter registration process that help organizations like Project Vote monitor and protect the rights of Virginia voters.
The NVRA requires that state records relating to voter registration and list maintenance be made available for public inspection. This is vital to ensuring that states are not conducting voter purges in secret, or using arbitrary or political-motivated criteria for removing eligible Americans from the rolls.
In 2008, Project Vote and the Advancement Project received reports of large numbers of rejected voter registration applications, particularly from students at the historically African-American Norfolk State University. We sought to review Norfolk’s rejected registration applications to determine if any eligible voters were unlawfully kept off the voting rolls, but were denied access due to Virginia law that prohibits such records from being disclosed, a clear violation of the NVRA.
Project Vote, the Advancement Project, and pro bono attorneys from the law firm of Ropes & Gray LLP filed Project Vote v. Long in February 2010 to compel Virginia to comply with the NVRA. In October 2010, Judge Rebecca Smith rejected the defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. Yesterday, Judge Smith handed down her decision in the case, ordering the Norfolk County Registrar to “permit access to any requesting party for copy and/or inspection of voter registration applications and related records.”
This issue has never before been litigated and yesterday’s ruling sets and important precedent to help ensure the transparency and integrity of the voter registration projects.