Americans move around a lot. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 7 million Americans move to a different state every year. A federal appeals court last week upheld a ruling that barred Indiana from aggressively canceling eligible registrations if a voter was found to be registered in another state. The Brennan Center and other groups had sued, arguing that the law violates the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which requires officials to provide notice and a waiting period before removing a voter from the rolls.

“Especially in states that have an early registration deadline, it may be perfectly rational for a voter to register in a new location before getting around to canceling the old Indiana registration, selling an Indiana house, or severing other formal connections with Indiana,” said Chief Judge Diane Wood. “The only way to know whether voters want to cancel their registration is to ask them.”

The ruling comes amid an uptick in voter purges. Nationwide, at least 17 million people have had their voter registrations canceled since the 2016 election, according to a Brennan Center analysis. // Huffington Post

A video uploaded to Facebook captured an electronic voting machine repeatedly changing the ballot of a Mississippi voter in the state’s gubernatorial runoff. Mississippi is one of eight states that will use paperless machines as primary polling place equipment in some counties and towns in 2020. These devices are vulnerable to hackers and mistakes. In a recent analysis, the Brennan Center urged states to use machines with paper back-ups to make elections more secure. // Washington Post

In the wake of a mass shooting by a white supremacist in El Paso, Texas, lawmakers have introduced bills to enlarge the government’s powers to prosecute “domestic terrorism.” But new laws are not the way to address white nationalist violence, argue the Brennan Center’s Harsha Panduranga and Faiza Patel. “There is no lack of legal authority to investigate or prosecute perpetrators, but rather a lack of will and focus to do so,” the pair write. Additionally, these proposals would dangerously expand the definition of “terrorism” to include crimes that involve property destruction and threats, which could threaten political protesters and advocacy protected by the First Amendment. // Just Security

Twenty years ago, the prevailing belief was that increasing incarceration was needed to reduce crime involved. But Boston Globe columnist Renée Loth argues that attitudes toward that assumption have reversed, citing a recent Brennan Center report which found that between 2007 and 2017, 34 states reduced both their prison populations and their crime rates. The report concluded that the data showed clearly that “reducing mass incarceration does not come at the cost of public safety.” // Boston Globe

• Next Tuesday, Brennan Center Fellow and former FBI special agent Michael German releases his new book, Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy.
• Next Thursday, September 12, the Brennan Center hosts noted civil liberties lawyer Burt Neuborne in New York for a discussion on the structure of the U.S. constitutional system and its ability to withstand authoritarianism.

• Michael German on protecting communities that are victims of far-right violence // The Atlantic
• Michael Li on a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s voter-approved independent redistricting commission // Huffington Post
• Faiza Patel on the implications of school surveillance programs that monitor students’ social media activity // Marketplace