Project Vote files suit against Secretary of State Rokita asking that these eligible voters be allowed to cast a ballot tomorrow
Indianapolis, IN – Drametra Brown is just one of the hundreds of eligible Indiana voters who may not be allowed to cast a ballot that counts in tomorrow’s historic election. An Indiana native and a Broad Ripple High School graduate from the class of 1989, Brown is eligible to vote in the state, and she completed her voter registration form entirely correctly. But the form she completed was from 2004. Despite there being no substantive differences between the old form and the new, Marion County has rejected Brown’s application along with two hundred other voters. Today, Project Vote filed suit in Indianapolis against Secretary of State Todd Rokita, demanding that Brown and other rightful voters like her be allowed to vote on Election Day.
Brown, a certified nursing assistant at Alpha Home in Indianapolis, registered to vote for the first time in her life when Lisa Hamilton, Alpha Home’s Admissions Director, conducted her biannual one-person registration drive the last week of September. Hamilton passed out voter registration forms she had on hand to all nursing home residents and workers who were not yet registered. Brown filled out her form and checked it twice to make sure everything was filled out correctly, and Hamilton reviewed it to make sure it was correct. Hamilton took care not to miss the state’s October 6 deadline.
But now, the Marion County Board of Voter Registration has refused to add Ms. Brown to the rolls. They cite a 2003 law, which became effective in 2005, requiring all registrations forms in the state to have yes/no checkboxes certifying that registrants are over the age of 18 and US citizens.
The form that Brown completed and signed has a box for her date of birth, and also contains her oath, under penalty of perjury and up to three years in jail or a $10,000 fine or both, stating “I am a citizen of the United States” and “I will be at least 18 years of age at the next general election.” It does not, however, have the two small yes/no checkboxes found on the 2008 forms.
Brown was notified of the problem through Project Vote’s Registration Repair program, which contacts eligible voters who have fallen through the bureaucratic cracks. When she learned of the issue, she immediately did everything she could to try to rectify the situation, but the Marion County board said that it was just too late.
“This was going to be my first time voting and I am so excited,” says Brown. “I thought that I was doing everything right, but now they are telling me that I can’t make my voice heard in this election. This isn’t supposed to be what America is all about.”
Brown is not alone. In Marion County alone, some 200 voters have not made it onto the rolls for allegedly using forms from the 2004 election that did not even have the checkboxes; county boards in the rest of the state have also imposed the same requirement.
“Drametra Brown’s eligibility to vote in the state of Indiana is not in question; she just swore to it on the wrong form,” says Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote. “Marion County should let her come to the polls and cast her ballot along with every other legal voter. Let her bring her ID and whatever proof is needed, let her correct her form and check the two little redundant boxes, but let her cast the ballot she has every right to cast. Our democracy works best when every American participates and when voters don’t need to jump through arbitrary hurdles to make their voices heard,” says Slater.