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Judicial Watch Warns 14 Counties in Five States to Clean Voter Registration Lists or Face Lawsuits

Judicial Watch announced yesterday that it sent letters to election officials in 14 counties and five states—Arkansas, California, Illinois, New York, and Oregon—notifying them of evident

violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). The letters detail how these states’ own reported data show that their counties removed an “absurdly low” or “impossible” number of inactive voter registrations under key provisions of the NVRA. The letters threaten federal lawsuits unless the violations are corrected in a timely fashion.


The NVRA requires states to “conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove” from the official voter rolls “the names of ineligible voters” who have died or changed residence. Among other things, the NVRA requires registrations to be cancelled when voters fail to respond to address confirmation notices and then fail to vote in the next two general federal elections. In 2018, the Supreme Court confirmed that such removals are mandatory (Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Inst., 138 S. Ct. 1833, 1841-42 (2018)).


States are required by federal law to report data concerning their removal programs to the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Every few years the EAC publishes this data as part of a report it provides to Congress. The most recent report and accompanying datasets were released in August of this year.


The data show that many U.S. counties reported mere handfuls of removals—and often no removals—of registrants who failed to respond to an address confirmation and failed to vote for two consecutive elections. To identify counties that are chronically behind in removing outdated registrations, Judicial Watch looked at the last four years of reported data, from November 2016 through November 2020. It found that some of the largest counties in the country reported absurdly low removal numbers under the NVRA’s statutory removal procedure for change of address during that period. The 14 counties receiving notice letters, the size of their registration lists, and the NVRA removals they reported are:

Robert Popper, Judicial Watch senior attorney and director of its voting integrity efforts, observed that “About 10% of Americans move every year. Those counties should generate hundreds of thousands of cancelled registrations. There is simply no way to comply with federal law while removing so few outdated registrations under its key provision.” Popper emphasized that these numbers come directly from state reports to the EAC. Popper was formerly Deputy Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.


Judicial Watch also sent notice letters threatening lawsuits against statewide election officials in Arkansas and Illinois on the ground that many counties in those states reported similarly low numbers of statutory removals.


“Once again, Judicial Watch is leading the charge for clean voter rolls and election integrity,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These letters are just the beginning of another sweep, in federal court if necessary, to clean voter rolls throughout the country.”


Similar efforts by Judicial Watch in the past have led to a number of voter-roll cleanups and successful NVRA lawsuits. A 2020 letter from Judicial Watch to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania led to the removal of 69,000 outdated registrations. In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld a voter-roll cleanup program that resulted from a Judicial Watch settlement of a federal lawsuit with Ohio. Kentucky began cleaning up hundreds of thousands of old registrations in 2019 after it too entered into a consent decree in 2018 to end another Judicial Watch lawsuit. California also settled an NVRA lawsuit with Judicial Watch began the process of removing up to 1.6 million inactive names from Los Angeles County’s voter rolls.


In 2020, Judicial Watch also sued North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Colorado for failing to clean their voter rolls.


In October 2020, Judicial Watch released a study that found 353 counties nationwide that had more voter registrations than citizens old enough to vote, i.e., counties where registration rates exceed 100%. Based on this research, in 2020, a federal court ordered the State of Maryland to produce complete voter registration records for Montgomery County that include the registered voters’ dates of birth.


In September 2020, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Illinois Conservative Union (ICU) and three of its officers, after Illinois state officials refused to allow them to obtain a copy of the state’s voter registration database. In June 2021, a federal court ruled the lawsuit could proceed.


  • Judicial Watch

  • Clean voter registration lists

  • Arkansas

  • California

  • Illinois

  • New York

  • Oregon

  • National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA)

  • inactive voter registrations

  • voter ID

  • vote fraud

  • voter integrity

  • Election Assistance Commission (EAC)

  • Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton

402 views21 comments

21 Comments


Mike Kelly
Mike Kelly
Nov 14, 2022

How about audits for AZ N GA ??

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Mary Moore
Mary Moore
Nov 17, 2021

I have read somewhere that there are people working on getting our voter registrations cleaned up. But you can bet the left in Salem will make it as slow of a process as necessary. And there should be a fine out of Kate's own pocket for not getting this done before now.

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startrek3010
Nov 17, 2021
Replying to

Cleaning up voter rolls is something needing to be done in all 50 states, I believe. It is a universal problem. The liberal left likes it this way--easier to steal elections and commit fraud (e.g., people voting twice [two different addresses]).

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startrek3010
Nov 17, 2021

It's about time something somewhere got done, folks . . . !


TRUMP 2024 & 2028! DEO VINDICE!

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joelyboy5
Nov 17, 2021

I read an article like this and it makes my blood boil. Why? Because it proves how the left is corrupt? NO!! I know the left is corrupt! I know they are going to do whatever they can to corrupt the election system. I know they are going to steal our once sacred and relatively fair elections.


So what the hell is with all of the lawsuits? Results? Action? And what are with all of the ?settlements? What, settle to remove only half of the dead voters? Only lean up part of the violations. If these violations aren't FORCED to be corrected by mid-terms and certainly by 2024 the EXACT SAME BS is going to happen and keep happening! …


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startrek3010
Nov 18, 2021
Replying to

LOL! Clinton and Obama were attorneys were attorneys also. I loved Mickey Rourke's line in the film Angel Heart: "Sure, I know what an attorney is. It's like a lawyer only the bills are bigger."

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jbhetherton
Nov 17, 2021

I have to ask, in regards to our government, at any level, what exactly is more important than securing our vote? I would postulate, nothing, absolutely nothing!

That being said, another question arises, why is it that jurisdictions have to be sued to obey the law?

If I were to rob a banks, there is NO law suit required to halt my violations, only an arrest. Why then is a law suit required to force compliance with the law regarding a much more egregious offence, as election fraud is a much more serious crime, that affects every citizen of the United States of America, as the vote is our voice, for most, our only voice!

We have long tolerated election…

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startrek3010
Nov 18, 2021
Replying to

If the liberal left had their way, many of us would NOT be allowed to vote. They do not like us, do not trust us, and think we are too stupid to be entrusted with this responsibility.


And by "us," I mean conservatives for the most part . . .

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