11 Calif. Counties Have 'More Registered Voters Than Eligible,' Watchdog Group Claims

SACRAMENTO, CA – A conservative watchdog group is threatening to sue California over 11 counties where there allegedly are more registered voters than voting-age citizens, but it remained to be seen this week whether the state will take any action in response to the threat. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, tweeted this week that the claims made by Washington, DC-based Judicial Watch were based on “bad math and flawed methodology.”

Judicial Watch stated in an Aug. 1 notice-of-violation letter to Padilla that its findings were according to public records obtained on the Election Assistance Commission’s 2016 Election Administration Voting Survey, verbal accounts from various county agencies, a comparison of the 2011-2015 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and the most recent California active and inactive voter registration records.

Judicial Watch says according to its data, the counties in question have more than 100 percent registered voters:

• Imperial County, 102 percent
• Lassen County, 102 percent
• Los Angeles County, 112 percent
• Monterey County, 104 percent
• San Diego County, 138 percent
• San Francisco County, 114 percent
• San Mateo County, 111 percent
• Santa Cruz County, 109 percent
• Solano County, 111 percent
• Stanislaus County, 102 percent
• Yolo County, 110 percent

There is “strong circumstantial evidence that California municipalities are not conducting reasonable voter registration list maintenance as mandated under the NVRA [National Voter Registration Act],” Judicial Watch attorney Robert Popper wrote.

Both the NVRA and the federal Help America Vote Act require states to take reasonable steps to maintain accurate voting rolls, Judicial Watch wrote in the letter sent on behalf Judicial Watch California supporters and the Election Integrity Project California.

The NVRA requires states to make a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from official lists due to “the death of the registrant” or “a change in the residence of the registrant,” and requires states to ensure noncitizens are not registered to vote, the watchdog group says.

“California’s voting rolls are an absolute mess that undermines the very idea of clean elections,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is urgent that California take reasonable steps to clean up its rolls. We will sue if state officials fail to act.”

Judicial Watch gave Padilla 30 days to respond, and 14 days to produce “copies of the most recent voter registration database from each California county and city mentioned in this letter, including fields indicating name, date of birth, home address, most recent voter activity, and active or inactive status.”

“As the top election official in California, it is your responsibility under federal law to coordinate California’s statewide effort to conduct a program that reasonably ensures the lists of eligible voters are accurate,” Popper wrote.

Following receipt of the letter, Padilla tweeted that it was “the latest in a series of coordinated attacks on the voting rights of U.S. citizens.”

The question many have posed this week is whether California should be dinged for the Judicial Watch numbers, which include the counties’ “inactive” voter rolls.

Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters Dean Logan told The Sacramento Bee that LA County maintains a 1.3-million inactive voter roll as a “fail-safe” for people who have moved and are otherwise ineligible to vote.

Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Stringer/Getty Images News/Getty Images