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Voter advocacy groups warn of lawsuits if Indiana state officials illegally remove voters from rolls

The National Voter Registration Act forbids states from removing people from the voter rolls within 90 days of an election.
The National Voter Registration Act forbids states from removing people from the voter rolls within 90 days of an election.

Several voter advocacy groups sent  a formal letter to Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales and Attorney General Todd Rokita, opposing their recent move that questions the citizenship of more than half a million registered voters.

Morales and Rokita are  asking the federal government for the citizenship status of 585,774 people – more than 10 percent of the state’s registered voters.

Organizations including Common Cause Indiana, the League of Women Voters of Indiana, the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and the Indiana State Conference of the NAACP said there’s no basis for suspecting Indiana’s voter rolls are full of non-citizens.

And their letter to the state officials emphasized that trying to remove any voter from the rolls this close to the election explicitly violates federal law.

READ MORE: What do I need on Election Day? The general election is Nov. 5

Join the conversation and sign up for the Indiana Two-Way. Text "Indiana" to 765-275-1120. Your comments and questions in response to our weekly text help us find the answers you need on statewide issues and the election, including our project  Civically, Indiana .

In an updated statement Thursday, Morales said  he wasn’t trying to remove anyone from the voter rolls.

The voter advocacy groups warned that they are prepared to take legal action if state officials try to illegally remove voters from the rolls or intimidate people who are allowed to cast a ballot.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at  bsmith@ipbs.org  or follow him on Twitter at  @brandonjsmith5 .

Brandon J. Smith has previously worked as a reporter and anchor for KBIA Radio in Columbia, MO. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, IL as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.