Great news: The DOJ is investigating voter disenfranchisement in Arizona

This development came after more than 113,000 other CREDO activists signed our petition to the DOJ demanding an immediate investigation.

In a letter sent Friday to Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, the chief of the DOJ’s Voting Rights section requested ten specific pieces of information, ranging from the criteria for determining the number and location of polling locations to the number of bilingual staff and poll workers assigned to each polling location. The letter requested comprehensive responses by April 22, and Maricopa County officials have already indicated that they plan to cooperate.

It is too soon to tell whether this investigation will lead to a remedy for future Arizona elections or accountability for the public officials responsible for disenfranchising voters, but the DOJ’s prompt investigation is a huge step in the right direction.

Republicans around the country are finding nefarious new ways to suppress and dilute the votes of African-Americans and Latinos. We must ensure that the DOJ remains vigilant and aggressively cracks down on any Republican efforts to suppress Americans’ right to vote in 2016.