WATCH: Padilla, Beatty Announce New Bill to Stop Trump Administration From Purging Voter Rolls

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California's former Secretary of State, and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) hosted a virtual press call to announce new bicameral legislation aimed at preventing the Trump Administration's ongoing efforts to purge state voter rolls and restrict the right to vote across the country. The Voter Purge Protection Act comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed lawsuits against eight states, including California, for their refusal to hand over unfettered access to their state's sensitive voter information and registration lists to the federal government. Democracy Forward and a coalition of public interest organizations recently sued the Trump Administration for its efforts to create massive government databases to purge voter rolls.

The Voter Purge Protection Act would update the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to prohibit the removal of individuals from the voter rolls due to changes in residence or not voting in previous elections, unless supported by objective and reliable evidence that the voter has died or moved out of the state, among other protections for registered voters and states administering elections. The NVRA requires states to conduct ineligible voter removal programs, but it bans states from removing voters without notice solely for their failure to vote. However, at least 19 states have removal processes that target inactive voters that could result in their removal for not voting in two consecutive general elections.

As DOJ continues to challenge state and local voter registration practices in preparation for mass voter roll purges, Padilla and Beatty were joined by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, to discuss the impact of the Administration's actions on voters.

"It should concern every single American, regardless of party, that the President of the United States wants fewer eligible Americans to vote, not more," said Senator Padilla. "As the Trump Administration prepares for widespread voter purges by unlawfully demanding states' entire sensitive voter files and building massive databases to run this voter data through, it's clear that President Trump and his allies are quietly laying the groundwork to cling to power by manipulating who gets to cast a ballot. With our democracy under attack, our bill would prevent unwarranted voter purges, protect voters, and preserve voting rights for both red and blue states, all while allowing for responsible voter roll maintenance."

"We can't overlook how so-called 'use-it-or-lose-it' voter purges have stripped countless Americans-particularly low-income citizens and people of color-of their voice at the ballot box. Revoking someone's registration simply because they didn't return a mailed notice undermines the very foundation of our democracy, especially when so many of those letters never even reach voters," said Congresswoman Beatty. "'Use It or Lose It' Is Not Democracy. Protecting the people's right to vote is a cornerstone of our democracy, and the Voter Purge Protection Act is a critical step toward preventing these harmful and unnecessary purges."

"This year, we've seen what appears to be an attempt at a federal takeover of our elections through Executive Order and through actions by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice. The Voter Purge Protection Act gives critical protections to Americans to ensure they are not stripped of their right to vote," said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.

"Democracy is built on the idea that all eligible voters should be allowed to choose the direction of their communities and our country by exercising their right to vote. However, anti-democratic forces are working to undermine this core principle by making it easier to erroneously purge the voter rolls and deny eligible voters their ability to exercise that right. This effort is not new, but what is new and bringing urgency to this issue is the extent to which the Executive Branch and the President himself is complicit and facilitating these efforts," said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. "Attempts to consolidate the American people's private information and remove eligible voters from voter rolls are unlawful. Our promise to the American people is that we will be in court every day to stop these abuses of power."

Since July, DOJ has sent letters to at least 36 states inquiring about state voter maintenance practices in addition to their lawsuits against California, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania after these states refused to provide voter lists to DOJ.

Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dramatically expanded its use of the insufficiently tested Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program, which could be used by the Administration as a basis to coerce states into purging eligible citizens from state voter rolls. DHS overhauled the SAVE Program to verify the citizenship of voters on state voter rolls in response to false, unsubstantiated concerns of rampant noncitizen voting. However, the Administration's political agenda and data quality issues could lead to the erroneous disenfranchisement of eligible voters. DHS has already run over 33 million voters' information through their SAVE Program with little to no transparency, further raising the alarm on potential future voting list purges.

To combat the threat of incorrect mass removal of eligible citizens from voter rolls, the Voter Purge Protection Act would:

• Amend the NVRA to prohibit states from removing registered voters from voting rolls unless the state has obtained objective and reliable evidence that a person is ineligible to vote. The legislation would clarify that failure to vote or respond to election mail would not constitute objective and reliable evidence of a voter's ineligibility to vote;

• Allow election officials to use state records to remove voters who have died or permanently moved out of the state;

• Require election officials to send a notice explaining the grounds for removal within 48 hours of removing voters from the rolls and provide public notice within 48 hours after any general program to remove voters; and

• Revise the voting procedure for a voter who failed to report a change of address by allowing a voter who moved within a state to vote at the polling place of the voter's current address or at a central location in the jurisdiction of the local voter registration office.

The Voter Purge Protection Act is cosponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Senator Padilla has led the charge in opposing the Trump Administration's thinly veiled attempts to purge voter rolls and investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. Last month, Padilla condemned DOJ's lawsuits against states for protecting sensitive voter information. On John Lewis National Day of Action in July, Senators Padilla, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) led 13 Senators in raising the alarm on the DOJ Civil Rights Division's policy shift to focus on unsubstantiated voter fraud investigations. Earlier that month, Padilla, Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) expressed serious concerns that recent changes to and the expanded use of the insufficiently tested DHS' SAVE Program could purge eligible citizens from state voter rolls. Earlier this year, Padilla led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America's Future Elections Act to repeal Trump's illegal anti-voter executive order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records.

A one-pager on the bill is available here.

Full text of the bill is available here.

The full video of today's press call can be downloaded here.

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