PILF to Congress: Fix Motor Voter

Published On: September 09th, 2019

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – September 9, 2019: Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams will testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee regarding evidence of current and ongoing voting discrimination this Tuesday, September 10.

In advance of his prepared testimony, Adams stated the following:

It has never been easier to vote in the United States than now. In some cases, voter access has broadened to the point that it lacks sufficient safeguards to ensure immigrants and felons don’t register before they are eligible. There is still work to be done, however.”

In prepared remarks, Adams explains how Guam attempted to discriminate against U.S. citizens wishing to participate in a recent plebiscite election:

“The legislature of Guam passed an election law confining the right to vote in a status plebiscite to a preferred racial group – so called ‘native inhabitants’ … Guam imposed voter qualifications based on blood ancestry much like the Oklahoma grandfather clauses struck down by the Supreme Court over a century ago … When [my client] sought to register to vote at the government office, his registration form was marked ‘VOID’ by election officials. Even in the Jim Crow south of the early 1960’s, southern registrars weren’t brazen enough to deny the right to vote explicitly on having the wrong racial blood.”

Adams adds that oft-described “civil rights” groups like those invited to testify alongside him are conspicuously missing from modern challenges.

Adams also explained how the Commonwealth of Virginia improperly removed U.S. citizen voter registrants after questioning their eligibility:

“Virginia has been cancelling the voter registrations of American citizens, mistakenly cancelling them as ‘declared non-citizens.’ This is happening because the Motor Voter law passed in 1993 is outdated … Yet as in Guam, the improper cancellation of American citizens on the voter rolls has not seemed to draw the attention of any of the traditional civil rights groups who so zealously catalog the latest threat to voting.”

The hearing is scheduled for 10am Tuesday, September 10, in the Rayburn HOB 2141.

Read a copy of Adams’ testimony, here.  You can watch at the House Judiciary Committee here.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation is the nation’s most active public interest law firm dedicated to enforcing the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and ensuring the integrity of American elections – bringing more than a dozen cases to enforce voter list maintenance obligations and inspection rights under federal law in federal courts across the nation in addition to serving as amicus in more than a dozen voting law cases. The Foundation also works with election officials and policymakers to improve the integrity of elections.

Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) public interest law firm dedicated to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. ###

Public Interest Legal Foundation