As the November elections near, more allegations of voter purging are cropping up. Michigan, a closely watched swing state in the presidential election, has been a hotbed of voter purging issues in recent weeks. Florida, another swing state, also finds itself in the midst of voter purging issues. Nonprofit organizations, individual citizens, and political parties have recently filed lawsuits alleging that voters are being unlawfully removed from the eligible voter pools.

The United States Student Association Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union Fund of Michigan, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed suit on Sept. 17 against the Michigan Secretary of State, the Michigan Director of Elections, and the City Clerk for the City of Ypsilanti to prevent the state from implementing two voter removal programs.

According to an ACLU press release, one of the voter removal programs "immediately cancels the voter registrations of Michigan voters who obtain driver's licenses in other states instead of issuing the appropriate confirmation of registration notices," and it fails to follow voter removal procedures mandated by the National Voter Registration Act.

The other voter removal program "requires local clerks to nullify the registrations of newly-registered voters whenever their original voter identification cards are returned by the post office as undeliverable."

There are also allegations in Michigan that Republican leaders may try to take advantage of a recent spate of foreclosures to challenge voters at polling places. According to the Michigan Messenger, James Carabelli, chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, MI, is "planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP's effort to challenge some voters on Election Day."

The Michigan Messenger alleges that Carabelli told them, "We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses." Carabelli and Michigan Republican officials have denied the claims.

In Florida, the "No-Match, No-Vote" law is causing voting rights advocates to fear that thousands of voters will be disenfranchised. Under Florida's "No-Match, No-Vote" law, individuals who have registered to vote and who display valid ID at the polls may still have their votes invalidated. On Sept. 8, Florida's Secretary of State decided to enforce the controversial law.

The "No-Match, No-Vote" law requires that a person's driver's license number or Social Security number be verified before they are registered to vote. According to an article on AlterNet, "State officials admitted in a recent challenge to the law, Florida NAACP v. Browning, that typographical errors by election workers are responsible for most of the failures." The same article states that the law "previously blocked more than 16,000 eligible Florida citizens from registering to vote, through no fault of their own, and could disenfranchise tens of thousands more voters in November."

According to voting rights advocates, many voters will not realize that there is a problem with their voter registration until they show up to vote and are forced to cast provisional ballots. Florida voters must show photo ID at the polls to cast the provisional ballot. After casting the ballot, they must send a photocopy of their driver's license or Social Security card to election officials within 48 hours of the election or their votes will not count.