Opinion ID: 18042
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ACORN’s eligible, unregistered voters

Text: ACORN’s first argument in support of its contention that it has standing to challenge Louisiana’s implementation of the NVRA as a representative of its individual members centers on several ACORN members who ACORN claims are eligible to vote, but are not registered to vote in Louisiana. Specifically, in its response to the appellees’ interrogatories, ACORN identifies several of its members who it claims “are eligible to register, but who are not registered or [who are] not registered at their current addresses.” The district court properly determined that ACORN failed to raise a factual question as to whether any of its unregistered members had been injured as a direct result of Louisiana’s 30 alleged failure to implement the NVRA. ACORN has provided no evidence that any of its unregistered members had ever received a driver’s license renewal form or that any of its unregistered members were previously registered but had been purged from the voter rolls by Louisiana. We therefore fail to see how any unregistered ACORN member has suffered a distinct and palpable injury as a result of the appellees’ conduct. ACORN claims that in Condon v. Reno, 913 F. Supp. 946 (D. S.C. 1995), a federal district court determined that eligible but unregistered voters have standing to bring NVRA implementation suits. ACORN mischaracterizes the district court’s holding in Condon, however. In that case, a district court considered whether an individual plaintiff who had moved to South Carolina had suffered an injury sufficient to allow her to bring suit against the state for alleged violations of the NVRA. See id. at 960. The district court determined that the individual plaintiff had suffered an injury based exclusively on the fact that she alleged that South Carolina had failed to make voter registration materials available at the Department of Motor Vehicles office at which she received her driver’s license, in direct violation of the NVRA. See id. Thus, Condon stands for the unspectacular proposition that an individual plaintiff who has been directly injured by the actions of a defendant has standing to sue that defendant. See also Krislov v. Rednour, 946 F. Supp. 563, 566 (N.D. Ill. 1996) (“Standing under the NVRA is limited to the United States Attorney General and the ‘aggrieved persons’ whose 31 voting rights have been denied or impaired.”). Unlike in Condon, ACORN has made no such showing of an injury to any of its unregistered members as a direct result of Louisiana’s alleged failure to carry out its mail-in driver’s license renewal program or to maintain its voter rolls in compliance with the NVRA; it therefore cannot bring suit on behalf of its unregistered voters on these claims.10