Today, voting rights groups Demos and Project Vote urged a federal appeals court to uphold a decision dismissing an attempt by the so-called “American Civil Rights Union” (ACRU) to force the City of Philadelphia to conduct an unnecessary purge of its voter rolls.
The groups, along with the law firm Hogan Lovells, claim in an amicus curiae brief that ACRU’s effort to target people with felony convictions violates federal voter registration law and would result in countless voters being disenfranchised.
“The ACRU’s case is trying to turn the NVRA—a law meant to protect eligible voters—on its head, in order to unlawfully take the right to vote away from eligible Americans who have paid their debt to society,” said Michelle Kanter Cohen, election counsel with Project Vote, in a press release today. “Studies and experience show that voter purges targeting individuals with felony convictions disenfranchise eligible voters, and disproportionately rob communities of color of their voice.”