Judicial Watch Issues Warning to Iowa, Colorado, and DC: Clean Up Your Voting Lists! -- Judicial Watch

In fact, on Monday of this week, JW held a press conference to announce a whole new group of states under our election integrity microscope. JW sent notice letters to top election officials in Iowa, Colorado, and the District of Columbia calling on them to follow Ohio’s lead and comply with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) or face a Judicial Watch lawsuit within 90 days.  (Judicial Watch attorneys Chris Fedeli and Robert Popper joined me at the press conference, which you can watch here.)

JW also sent inquiries on March 6, 2014, to officials in California, New Mexico, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois notifying them of potential “apparent problems” and asking these states to provide records of steps taken to assure the accuracy of voter lists.  (If you live in any of these states, you should know that your home state also has voter list issues.)

Here’s a brief excerpt from my statement announcing this new initiative, which received widespread news coverage (click here to read The Washington Times piece):

Dirty voter rolls can mean dirty elections. Many states are shirking their legal responsibilities to maintain clean voter rolls.  This undermines confidence in our election system.  Outrageously, the Obama Justice Department simply refuses to enforce the federal law that requires states to take reasonable steps to clean voter rolls.  Judicial Watch is now doing the job of the U.S. Justice Department.

Judicial Watch’s notifications to Secretaries of State in Iowa and Colorado and the Board of Elections Supervisors in the District of Columbia specifically warn:

We write to bring your attention to violations of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”) … This letter serves as statutory notice that Judicial Watch will bring a lawsuit against your office if you do not take specific actions to correct these violations of Section 8 within 90 days. In addition, by this letter we are asking you to produce certain records to us which you are required to make available under Section 8(i) of the NVRA. We hope that litigation will not be necessary to enforce either of these claims.

In each state (and DC) we supported our accusations with specific evidence gathered by JW investigators indicating that each jurisdiction is “failing to comply with the voter registration list requirements of Section 8 of the NVRA.” Judicial Watch examined United States Census data and compared it with voter registration data sent by states to the Election Assistance Commission, a federal government entity:

• In Iowa:  A comparison of 2012 Census data and 2012 Election Assistance Commission (EAC) data shows there were more people registered to vote than there were adults over the age of 18 living in each of the following 24 counties: Fremont, Johnson, Madison, Adams, Scott, Pocahontas, Kossuth, Poweshiek, Lyon, Cass, Dickinson, Clay, Chickasaw, Shelby, Boone, Worth, Hancock, Ida, Dallas, Audubon, Sac and Greene. A comparison with 2010 Census population estimates and 2010 EAC data shows that this trend has only worsened.

• In Colorado:  A comparison of 2012 Census data and 2012 EAC data shows there were more people registered to vote than there were adults over the age of 18 living in each of the following 22 counties: Mineral, Ouray, Hinsdale, San Juan, Jackson, Gilpin, Summit, San Miguel, Gunnison, Dolores, Teller, Grand, Clear Creek, Elbert, Cheyenne, Archuleta, Pitkin, Boulder, Douglas, Routt, and Baca. A comparison with 2010 Census population estimates and 2010 EAC data shows that this trend has only worsened.

• In the District of Columbia: A review of Census data and EAC data shows there were more people registered to vote in DC than there were adults over the age of 18 living there as of 2010, and as of 2012, which is the most recent data available.

Meanwhile, the Judicial Watch notifications to election officials in Iowa, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois and DC demand a response within 45 days, including the specific steps taken to comply with the law.

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