Thousands of voters could be improperly kept off the rolls

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Misspelled names and other minor errors could improperly keep thousands of voters off the rolls in Washington state, critics said in a federal lawsuit.

The complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeks to overturn a law that voter registrations must match personal information in other government databases. Plaintiffs in the suit, including a labor union, minority voter groups and poverty advocates, also want a judge to bar the state from striking mismatched registrations ahead of the September primary and November general elections, The Associated Press reported.

Trova Heffernan, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, said the matching law was meant to make sure potential voters do not misrepresent their identities.

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