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States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal - NYTimes.com Page 4 of 4 64` It takes io minutes to process a normal registration and up to a week to deal with a flagged one, said Ms. McFall, a Republican, adding that she was receiving ioo or so flagged registrations a week. Usually, when state election officials check a registration and find that it does not match a database entry, they alert local election officials to contact the voter and request further proof of identification. If that is not possible, most states flag the voter file and require identification from the voter at the polling place. In Florida, Iowa, Louisiana and South Dakota, the problem is more serious because voters are not added to the rolls until the states remove the flags. Ms. McFall said she was angry to learn from the state recently that it was her responsibility to contact each flagged voter to clear up the discrepancies before Election Day. "This situation with voter registrations is going to land us in court," she said. In fact, it already has. In Michigan and Florida, rights groups are suing state officials, accusing them of being too aggressive in purging voter rolls and of preventing people from registering. In Georgia, the Justice Department is considering legal action against the state because officials in Cobb and Cherokee Counties sent letters to hundreds of voters stating that their voter registrations had been flagged and telling them they cannot vote until they clear up the discrepancy. On Monday, the Ohio Republican Party filed a motion in federal court against the secretary of state to get the list of all names that have been flagged by the Social Security database since Jan. i. The motion seeks to require that any voter who does not clear up a discrepancy be required to vote using a provisional ballot. Republicans said in the motion that it is central to American democracy that nonqualified voters be forbidden from voting. The Ohio secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, said in court papers that she believes the Republicans are seeking grounds to challenge voters and get them removed from the rolls. Considering that in the past year the state received nearly 290,000 nonmatches, such a plan could have significant impact at the polls. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy ~ Search ~ Corcections ~ ' RSS~ I First Look ~ Help ~ Contact Us ~ Work for Us ~ Site Mao http://www.nytimes.com/2008/ 10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_t=1 &sq=purge&st=cse&... 10/16/2008