Judicial Watch Threatens 11 States With Voter Registration Litigation

We’re already hearing rumblings in the press about the mid-term elections in less than two years. These important elections should be free and fair. The first step is cleaning up the notoriously inflated voter registration rolls.

In that regard, Judical Watch has stepped up to the plate, sending notice of violation letters threatening to sue counties in 11 states where the number of registered voters exceeds the number of voting-age citizens, as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011-2015 American Community Survey.

We note in the letters that this is "strong circumstantial evidence that these . . . counties are not conducting reasonable voter registration record maintenance as mandated under the [National Voter Registration Act] NVRA." Both the federal NVRA and the Help America Vote Act require states to take reasonable steps to maintain accurate voting rolls.

The 11 states are: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee. (More warning letters may be sent out to additional states.) The states have 90 days after receiving the letters to address the problem and provide us with documentation showing that they have conducted a "statewide effort to conduct a program that reasonably ensures the lists of eligible voters are accurate." We informed the states that should they fail to take action to correct violations of Section 8 of the NVRA within 90 days, we would file suit.

More