State Sued Over Purging Voter Rolls ANN ARBOR (Michigan Radio) -


The state of Michigan is being sued over the way it purges local voter rolls.

The lawsuit could affect how many people can vote in this November's presidential election.

Michigan's Secretary of State's office will invalidate a voter's registration if the U.S. Postal Service returns a voter registration card as undeliverable, or if the voter has an out of state driver's license.

The American Civil Liberties Union and a student rights group called the Advancement Project filed suit to stop future voter registration purges. Bradley Heard is an attorney with the Advancement Project. He says time is critical.

"We want to be sure that the path to the polls is clear on election day. And people are not having the problems of finding out that they're not registered when they thought they had done all that they can," says Heard.

A Secretary of State office spokeswoman says the state is simply following laws that have been on the books for more than 30 years. © Copyright 2009, Michigan Radio