New registration policies may block voters at polls

Citizen advocacy organization Common Cause has identified a series of concerns surround the upcoming election.

“Probably the biggest problem we’ve seen this election is troubles with people’s voter registration, where they’ll be going to the polls thinking that they are registered and told ‘sorry, we don’t have your name on the list’,” said Derek Cressman, Regional Director of State Operations for Western States for Common Cause.

Cressman partially attributes this to new voter verification policies, such as Florida’s hardline policy which states that voter registration data must exactly match other state information.

According to Cressman, there have been some instances when voters have been wrongfully removed from registration lists.

“We’re also particularly worried that in the final days before the election we’ll see practices that are known as voter challenges, where there’ll be partisan operatives at polling places challenging a voter’s eligibility.”

Cressman said that the organization is convinced that there are thousands of legitimate voters that have been wrongfully denied the ability to vote.

President of Common Cause Bob Edgar says that the organization has mobilized against these threats by sending thousands to work for the cause of fair elections and establishing the hotline “866-OurVote”, where voters can ask questions and confirm their registration status.