Federal Judge Halts Michigan Voter Purge:

Fake voter registration is hardly the only election problem. Efforts to purge voter rolls of ineligible voters can (and often do) result in the removal of eligible voters as well, particularly if purge efforts are based upon returned mailers. From the Detroit Free Press:

U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III told state officials to immediately stop canceling the registrations of newly registered voters whose voter identification cards are returned as undeliverable by the post office. Murphy said state officials must restore the names of 1,438 people who have been removed from the rolls under this method since Jan. 1.

Murphy said a second practice -- removing the names of people who apply for driver's licenses in other states -- also is illegal, but the prospects of restoring the names of about 200,000 people, only a few of whom were wrongly removed, "would risk grave harm to the public interest by permitting a large number of ineligible voters to vote."

The judge said the plaintiffs and defendants in a lawsuit must figure out how to deal with that problem as the lawsuit proceeds.