Democrats Sue to Prevent GOP Voter Roll Purge
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WASHINGTON — The Democratic Party filed a $10-million lawsuit Tuesday in a New Jersey federal court in an attempt to block a Republican Party “ballot integrity” program that Democrats say is aimed at scaring blacks and other minority voters away from the polls.
Republicans have launched a nationwide effort, said to cost up to $1 million, aimed at purging dead and nonexistent voters from the registration rolls.
Democrats charge that minorities are the real targets, since the program is aimed at districts in which Democratic presidential nominee Walter F. Mondale got 75% to 80% of the vote in 1984. Mondale received such high percentages from black voters.
The lawsuit alleges that the GOP program, already used in Louisiana and planned for several other states, violates a 1982 consent decree that arose from an earlier suit filed in New Jersey.
Democrats are asking for $10 million in damages, an order blocking the program and a ruling that would require Republicans to contribute to an independent voter registration program in black and other minority neighborhoods.
Republican National Chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. denied the allegations.
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