Kentucky: Protecting Voters from Unlawful Purges
In June 2024, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky challenging a provision in Kentucky election law that mandates the removal of voters from voter registration rolls without following procedures required by federal law. The plaintiff, represented by Fair Elections Center and Kentucky Equal Justice Center, argues that amendments to state law in 2021 regarding voter removals under Kentucky House Bill 574 clearly violate the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
Pennsylvania: Rejection of Mail-In Ballots for Date Technicalities
In June 2024, the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans, represented by Fair Elections Center and LeVan Stapleton Segal Cochran LLC, filed a lawsuit against the Lancaster County Board of Elections to challenge the rejection of mail-in and absentee ballots that are missing the last two digits of the year from the handwritten date on the outer return envelope.
A month later, as part of a mandatory directive to all 67 county Boards of Elections, the Pennsylvania Department of State has instructed the full year to be pre-printed on the return envelope for mail-in and absentee ballots, instead of requiring voters to complete the last two digits of the year by hand. Having achieved what it set out to accomplish, PARA voluntarily discontinued its lawsuit.
