Santa Clara County Delays Removal of Inactive Voters Until November 2022
On August 8, 2020 the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters announced it would not remove inactive voters until after the November 2022 general election. The announcement was made in response to a joint inquiry by Dr. Alex Glew, GOP nominee for Senate District 13, and the Santa Clara County Republican Party.
On July 7, the Santa Clara County GOP and SD 13 nominee Alex Glew together asked the County Registrar of Voters to remove inactive voters in accordance with the settlement announced January 3, 2019 between Judicial Watch, the Election Integrity Project, Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State.
In Los Angeles County, the settlement required the removal of inactive voters by February 2019. However, Santa Clara County has determined that it must wait until after the November 2022 election to begin removing inactive voters.
According to the settlement in Los Angeles, the Secretary of State agreed to revise the NVRA manual to instruct counties to remove inactive voters in accordance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). That law, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, requires that voters who have not voted in two federal elections be removed if they do not respond to a notice sent by the county.
In its August 8 letter to Dr. Glew, obtained directly from the registrar by BayAreaGOP.com, Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey said the California Secretary of State issued new instructions to counties in March 2019. Then in December 2019, the county sent a notice to inactive voters that would trigger the process of removal if voters did not respond.
Because the county registrar determined that previous notices did not comply with the NVRA, Bushey said the county had to wait for two more federal elections before removing inactive voters who did not respond to the notice.
Glew, who co-chairs the Election Integrity working group for the Santa Clara County Republican Party, said that the county registrar’s response is currently being reviewed by Judicial Watch counsel for advice on next steps.
However, the correspondence demonstrates that diligence is required in order to insure that California counties are implementing the ballot integrity procedures as outlined in Judicial Watch settlement and the Secretary of State’s NVRA manual. Currently Glew is working with the San Mateo County GOP to seek a similar response from the San Mateo County Registrar regarding the status of the process to remove inactive voters.
View the letter sent by Dr. Alex Glew, the response from Santa Clara County Registrar Shannon Bushey, and the settlement agreement signed by Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State by clicking on the links below.