February 16, 2010 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - In response to concerns expressed by national voting rights groups Project Vote and the Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN), the Kansas Secretary of State has issued new instructions to county election officials to ensure that eligible voters are not wrongfully removed from the rolls under an ongoing program to update voter registration databases based on interstate matching.

Kansas has partnered with 11 other states – Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and South Dakota – to run an annual comparison of statewide voter databases to see if voters have moved and re-registered in another state. The new instructions being hailed by voting rights groups clarify how local Kansas election officials should handle potential voter matches sent to them by the Secretary of State based on these interstate crosschecks.

TRENTON, NJ - The Department of the Public Advocate has joined a coalition of voting rights groups to file papers with the State Board of Education today proposing new regulations aimed at ramping up voter registration efforts in New Jersey schools.

Joining with two national nonpartisan advocacy groups, Project Vote and the Fair Elections Legal Network, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey in signing the petition, the Department of the Public Advocate has asked for rules to ensure all New Jersey high schools distribute voter registration forms to eligible seniors and educate them about the fundamental importance of voting. Additionally, the proposal would mandate that schools report to the state with details about their compliance with the law and the number of students they helped register.