ACLU Challenges 20-Day Cutoff For Voter Registration

BOSTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the constitutionality of a Massachusetts law that requires voters to register at least 20 days before an election.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, the ACLU said the voter registration cutoff results in the “arbitrary disenfranchisement of thousands of eligible voters.”

The suit asks the court to throw out the law and allow several plaintiffs to vote in Tuesday’s election, including one woman who missed the registration deadline because of the sudden death of her mother in Puerto Rico.

The director of the ACLU of Massachusetts’ Racial Justice Program, Rahsaan Hall, says a growing number of U.S. states allow Election Day voter registration.

The state’s top elections official, Secretary of State William Galvin, declined comment on the challenge.