Federal Lawsuit Filed Against California Regarding Voter Rolls

A conservative watchdog organization has initiated a federal lawsuit targeting California, citing significant issues with the state’s voter registration process.

Judicial Watch, a group known for its freedom of information lawsuits aimed at exposing alleged government misconduct, contends that California has neglected to eliminate hundreds of thousands of inactive voter registrations. This oversight, they argue, poses serious risks to the integrity of the state’s automatic mail-in voting system.

The legal documents claim that there are 873,092 inactive voter registrations that have persisted over at least two federal election cycles, with some dating back over ten years. Specifically, 326,808 of these registrations have been inactive for at least three consecutive federal elections, while 151,202 have remained unchanged for four consecutive elections.

The lawsuit asserts that California is failing to uphold federal voter roll maintenance standards as mandated by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). The act stipulates that states must make reasonable efforts to remove ineligible voters, such as those who have passed away or relocated.

This legal action, representing Don Wagner, an elected member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and a candidate for California Secretary of State, urges a federal court to mandate that California implement more rigorous measures to maintain voter rolls and eliminate ineligible registrations.

Judicial Watch noted in their legal filing that if California was effectively managing the removal of ineligible voters due to changes in residence, counties would not show such minimal cancellations of registrations over two years under the NVRA.

Judicial Watch emphasized the potential implications, claiming that the presence of at least 873,000 inactive names could lead to fraud and diminish public trust in election integrity.