I will be speaking at the Tulane Law School at 5pm Wednesday.  The topic will be the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the Jindal Adminstration under Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act.  I will have some interesting details about the DOJ investigation.  While the DOJ has brought a Section 7 lawsuit against the state to crank up voter registration in welfare agencies and government aid offices, it is ignoring manifest problems in Louisiana regarding over-inflated voter rolls.  Section 8 is the provision of the same law that gives the DOJ the power to force clean-ups of inflated voter rolls.

Are voter rolls in Louisiana inflated and therefore might a Section 8 investigation lie?  Yes.  Five parishes have more registered voters than there are citizens old enough to vote.  According to data made available in the Election Assistance Commission NVRA survey from the 2010 election, they are:

Cameron Parish:    118% of citizens older than 18 are registered to vote.
Tensas Parish: 108%
St. Helena Parish: 104%
St. Bernard Parish: 102%
Orleans Parish: 101%

Rumor has it that DOJ might finally be changing the policy articulated by the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General (that no Section 8 investigations would be approved).  If the policy is changed, and the DOJ were to finally start enforcing the law after a three year slumber, it would be a good thing.