February 16, 2010 – NORFOLK, VA – Today, leading voter protection
groups Advancement Project and Project Vote, along with pro bono
cooperating attorneys from the law firm of Ropes & Gray LLP, filed a
lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Norfolk against Elisa Long, general
registrar of Norfolk and Nancy Rodrigues, secretary of the State Board
of Elections, for denying access to certain voter registration records.
After receiving reports from their local community partners regarding
large numbers of rejected voter registration applications, particularly
from students at the historically African-American Norfolk State
University, Advancement Project and Project Vote sought to review
Norfolk’s rejected registration applications to ascertain if qualified
persons were unlawfully kept off the voting rolls.
“The rejection rate by the Norfolk City registrar was troubling,
given the high influx of new voter registration applications that came
from low income, minority, college student, and military applicants,”
said Bradley E. Heard, senior attorney at Advancement Project and
co-counsel for the plaintiff in the case. “We are concerned that the
registrar may have been using arbitrary and immaterial standards as the
basis for rejecting voter registration applications, and we want to get
to the bottom of this issue in advance of the 2010 midterm election
cycle.”
The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA ) has a public disclosure
provision mandating states to adhere to certain requirements. In
particular, the provision requires that records relating to the
implementation of voter registration programs and activities be made
available to the public for inspection and photocopying upon request.
Virginia law, by contrast, prohibits many voter registration
records—including rejected voter registration applications—from being
disclosed. Advancement Project and Project Vote notified the Norfolk
registrar and the State Board of Elections last summer about the
conflict between Virginia and federal law and urged them to follow
federal requirements, because when there is a contradiction between
state and federal statues, the prevailing rule of law is the federal
statue. Last fall, however, election officials indicated that in their
estimation no conflict existed, and they believed that the Norfolk
officials were acting properly in accordance with state law.
“The right of advocacy organizations and any other member of the
public to inspect and copy those records and other records relating to
voter registration activities is clearly permissible under NVRA,” said
Yolanda Sheffield, director of election administration for Project Vote,
the named plaintiff in the suit. “Without access to the records we
cannot determine whether the applications were properly rejected and/or
whether any systemic election administration problems exist within the
Norfolk General Registrar’s Office that need correction.”
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Contacts:
Michael McDunnah (Project Vote)
202.905.1397
Sabrina Williams (Advancement Project) 202/728-9557 or
305/904-3960