Yesterday, the Justice Department filed a Statement of Interest in Judicial Watch v. Reed, No. 6:24-cv-1783 (D. Ore.) regarding the requirements under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) for states to maintain and make available for public inspection records concerning list maintenance to ensure the accuracy of the official list of eligible voters.
The lawsuit, filed Oct. 23, 2024, alleges that the State of Oregon failed to comply with the state’s obligations under the NVRA to conduct a list maintenance program and to make the records concerning list maintenance publicly available.
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. The law 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.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit after uncovering a broad failure to clean up voter rolls in dozens of Oregon counties.
The DOJ Press Release stated: Advancing President Trump’s Executive Order to preserve and protect the integrity of American elections, the Attorney General of the United States, through the Civil Rights Division, enforces NVRA mandates.
“Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in Oregon are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “States have specific obligations under the list maintenance provisions of the NVRA, and the Department of Justice will vigorously enforce those requirements.”
OF NOTE: In 2018, the Supreme Court confirmed that such voter roll removals are mandatory. In February 2023, Los Angeles County confirmed the removal of 1,207,613 ineligible voters from its rolls since the previous year, under the terms of a settlement agreement reached in a federal lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch in 2017. Legal pressure from Judicial Watch ultimately led to the removal of up to four million ineligible voters from voter rolls in New York, California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and elsewhere.
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