Today in class Jay presented on the New York City Board of Election.  Specifically, his presentation and subsequent class discussion was centered around the concept of Mass Voter Purging. Prior to Jay’s presentation, I did not know what voter purging even meant and I certainly was not aware of how serious the problem was during this past primary election.  Voter Purging is essentially clearing the voter database of names of eligible voters.  This is regularly done for citizens who passed away or moved out of the area. However, in Brooklyn this practice was used in an unethical and seemingly unlawful manner to purge the voter rolls of eligible, registered voters.

I did not appreciate the severity of these actions until Jay said that on November 3^rd, 2016 Common Cause, a non-profit organization, filed suit against the New York City Board of Elections. Moreover, the United States Department of Justice chose to join this lawsuit on the side of Common Cause.  The reason behind this massive law suit is rather simple: United States citizens were wrongfully denied the right to vote.  The very fundamental characteristic of democracy was violated. This matter did not significantly matter to me until I put myself until I put myself in the shoes of one of the 117,000 Brooklyn residents who were purged. What if when I went to vote, I was told that I was no longer registered?

When the class’s focus finally progressed from the actual act of the voter purge, we turned to the bigger picture of flaws in the American electoral process. An interesting idea that was debated heavily was whether or not a registered member of one party should be able to vote in the primary of another party. The initial answer seems to be of course not—this would allow people to effectively sabotage the opposing party by electing a potential loser candidate. However, when dissected further, the issue of independent voters not being allowed to vote in any primary elections is more serious. Especially when a growing number of the population registers as independent.