By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO. – The federal Justice Department has sued Missouri for alleged voting rights violations.
The lawsuit filed late today claims Missouri election officials have failed to keep accurate and up-to-date voter registration lists.
The result is that some people may still be listed as voters even after they have died or moved. And others may have been taken off the voter rolls prematurely.
The lawsuit cites a fact first reported by The Associated Press in October of 2004; that Missouri's voter rolls are longer than the actual number of voting-age residents in some counties. To that, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan agreed there's a problem. "It defies common sense that we would have more registered voters than people of voting age in any Missouri county," she said in a statement.
The Justice Department is seeking a declaration that Missouri is in violation of federal law and a court order that it develop a plan within 30 days to correct the violations.
But Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the state's chief elections official, says the office is well aware of problems that need to be addressed, and her office has been working to fix them.
"I'm disappointed that, rather than cooperating with the State of Missouri in order to achieve our shared goal [of ensuring fair and accurate elections], the Department of Justice has instead chosen to pursue this needless lawsuit," Carnahan said in a statement