is NYT just being lazy

Search deep within you

In your heart you know the truth; you’ve always known

Nearly 500,000 of the voters purged during the time period highlighted by Mr. Abbott were dead. About the same number were cleared after they were put on a list of people who did not vote in two successive general elections and are believed to have moved.
Those numbers were roughly equivalent to the number of voters in those categories removed in previous years.

…

Mr. Abbott said around 1,900 possible noncitizens had a voting history in the state before their registrations were canceled. He said their records were being forwarded to the attorney general’s office for investigation.

…

“In a two-year cycle, 10 percent of your roll could move,” even in an economic downturn, Mr. Bettencourt said. During a good economy, it could be even higher, he said.

Seem like all the numbers are there to me?

I don’t understand why America can’t do the same and get rid of this ongoing shitstorm?

TL;DR: Because the broken status quo is super profitable and fixing it would mean returning stolen power and eventually wealth to regular people

Longer version:

Because this is what the money and strategy industries behind the politicians want.

If everyone was automatically registered to vote when eligible, many more people would vote.

If many more people, especially from the demographics most hindered right now, voted, the Republican party would cease to be a viable party without changing some basic policy principles.

If the Republican party was no longer viable, Democrats would have no cover for running on Republican light policy positions under the unofficial slogan “vote for us to avoid something even worse”.

If Democrats could no longer do that, the party would split along ideological lines.

With the Republicans gone and the Democrats split with many of them actually left of center, the ultra-rich people bribing both parties as well as the consulting industry selling various blends of status quo or worse strategies as the only options would lose a shitload of power to the will of the actual people.

Kids