ACLU of Kentucky

Franklin County Circuit Court

In September 2005, Kentucky, at Secretary of State Trey Grayson’s urging, entered into a project with Tennessee and South Carolina to compare voter databases. The three states sought to identify individuals who were registered to vote in more than one state and then purge the “matching” voters with the earlier registration date. A month before the May 2006 primary, Kentucky election officials purged 8,105 names from the list of eligible voters.

Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo filed suit shortly afterwards, alleging that the purge unlawfully  cancelled voters without notice and failed to place voters on an inactive list, as required for those who have changed addresses.  The Board of Elections argued that appearing on another state's voter rolls was akin to a request to be removed from Kentucky's voter list, so the protections normally afforded to voters who move do not apply.

The ACLU of Kentucky was part of a coalition of voting rights organizations, including the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, Project Vote, and Common Cause of Kentucky, in filing a "friend of the court" brief in support of the Attorney General's argument.  Louisville attorney Tom Schulz served as our cooperating attorney.

In October 2006, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Wingate ruling that the purge of names violated Kentucky election law.  Judge Wingate concluded that Kentucky voters who registered in another state had a change of address, not a request that their name be purged from Kentucky’s voter roll.  He ordered that the names of those who were purged be placed on an inactive voter list for two federal election cycles, as is required under Kentucky and federal law for voters who have changed their address.