The prosecution of voter suppression schemes represents an important law enforcement priority, and such schemes should be aggressively investigated. Unless Congress enacts a statute specifically criminalizing this type of conduct, 18 U.S.C. §§ 241 and 242 are the appropriate prosecutive tool by which to charge provable offenses. 7. Fraudulent Registration or Voting: 52 U.S.C. § 20511(2) This provision was enacted as part of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). As discussed above, Congress enacted the NVRA to ease voter registration requirements throughout the country. The major purpose of this legislation was to promote the exercise of the franchise by replacing diverse state voter registration requirements with uniform and more convenient registration options, such as registration by mail, when applying for a driver’s license, and at various government agencies. In addition, the NVRA sought to protect the integrity of the electoral process and the accuracy of the country’s voter registration rolls. To further these goals, a criminal statute was enacted that specifically addressed two common forms of electoral corruption: intimidation of voters (52 U.S.C. § 20511(1), (discussed above), and fraudulent registration and voting (52 U.S.C. § 20511(2)). Violations are subject to imprisonment for up to five years. With respect to fraudulent registration and voting, Section 20511(2) criminalizes submitting voter registrations or ballots that contain materially false information with knowledge of the falsity. E.g., United States v. Prude, 489 F.3d 873, 874–75 (7th Cir. 2007) (affirming conviction of disenfranchised felon who voted after notice of her ineligibility). 58

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