By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
September 25, 2017
The Public Interest Legal Foundation is warning nearly 250 counties that they could face a lawsuit over bloated voter rolls, after their own analysis released Monday found they have more people registered to vote than could theoretically be eligible.
New York City’s big counties are on the list, with New York County — also known as Manhattan — listing 54 percent more names on its voter rolls than the total number of people of voting age, according to Census Bureau figures.
The other boroughs also made this PILF list this year, as did San Diego in California.
All told, some 248 total counties spanning 24 states were getting warnings for having bloated voter rolls in the 2016 election, the PILF said. That’s up from 144 counties across 21 states warned after the 2014 election.
“Voter fraud begins with corrupted voter rolls,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “We hear about possible cyberattacks, but we aren’t doing enough to fix voter rolls that are certainly corrupt. The voter rolls are so bad in some states that election officials would have a hard time telling the difference between sabotage and negligence.”
Mr. Adams is a member of President Trump’s new voter integrity commission, which is likely to take a look at bloated voter rolls as part of its mandate.
Voters can remain on the rolls even after having died, left a jurisdiction or otherwise become ineligible to vote there.
Federal law urges rolls to be cleaned up, but makes the culling a tricky and legally challenges process.
The Supreme Court is slated to hear a case in its upcoming term over Ohio’s voter-culling practices, which lower courts ruled were too aggressive. Ohio puts voters on notice if they haven’t cast ballots in two years. If the voters fail to respond to the notice, and don’t vote in any of the subsequent four years, the state removes them.
The Obama Justice Department had opposed Ohio’s policy in the lower courts, but with the case now pending in the Supreme Court the Trump Justice Department is backing Ohio.
