Judicial Watch has once again taken legal action to force 21 California counties to remove ineligible voters from their voter rolls. Targeted counties in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas include Alameda, Solano, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and San Benito.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California seeks to compel California to implement the 2018 settlement agreement between Judicial Watch and both the California Secretary of State and the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters to remove voters who fail to respond to a residency notice sent by the county registrar and then fail to vote in two federal elections.
From November 2020 to November 2022 the five Bay Area counties listed above removed just one voter pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
By contrast the Santa Clara County Registrar confirmed in a letter to the Santa Clara County Republican Party (SVGOP) that it had removed approximately 204,000 inactive voters from its rolls in compliance with the requirements of the NVRA. That action followed letters sent by the SVGOP in July 2020 and August 2023 demanding that the county remove ineligible voters from its rolls.
In February 2023, Los Angeles County confirmed to Judicial Watch that it had removed over 1.2 million ineligible voters from its rolls since the year before.
As a part of the 2018 settlement agreement, the California Secretary of State issued a new California NVRA manual to county registrars in March 2019. The new manual contained detailed instructions regarding the removal of inactive voters. Each county registrar in California has the responsibility to follow those instructions to implement the required clean-up of the voter rolls on a regular basis.
The Judicial Watch lawsuit followed correspondence in which the State of California admitted that 21 counties removed five or fewer registrations pursuant to the NVRA between November 2020 and November 2022.
The inescapable but unsurprising conclusion from these events is that constant vigilance is required in order to achieve fair and honest elections. Individuals interested in participating in election integrity activities can volunteer through the CAGOP website or their local Republican County Central Committee. In addition, many counties will hire temporary workers to help run the fall election. There is no better way to ensure integrity in the election process than to become a part of the team conducting the election.
County Republican Parties may also follow the example of the SVGOP by contacting their local county election officials to ask how they are complying with the NVRA. The BayAreaGOP.com Election Integrity page lists the SVGOP correspondence with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters along with the original 2018 settlement agreement. These documents can provide a template for communicating directly with local county election officials.
Inquiries to BayAreaGOP.com are also welcome via the Contact Us page on this site.