GOP List Would Purge 1 in 7 Black Voters

A Republican project is targeting 7 million people for purging from voter rolls across 27 states, including 1 in 7 registered African-American voters. Al Jazeera America reported the findings of a six-month-long investigation into the Interstate Crosscheck program Wednesday. The Crosscheck list claims these millions of people have voted in two or more states in the same election (a felony). However, the list is sloppy: It mismatches or ignores middle names and suffixes like Jr. and Sr. What’s worse, birthdays and Social Security mismatches are commonly ignored. In three states that provided lists, 1 in 7 blacks and 1 in 8 Hispanics are under suspicion of voting twice. The purges have already begun: 41,000 were removed from Virginia’s voter rolls. “It’s Jim Crow all over again,” said Rev. Joseph Lowery, who cofounded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr.