General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLA County and State to Purge 1.5 Million Inactive Voters From Rolls
Inactive voter registrations usually occur when voters move to another country or state or pass away but remain on the rolls.By City News Service
Published Feb 7, 2019 at 2:44 AM
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/LA-County-and-State-to-Purge-15-Million-Inactive-Voters-From-Rolls-505494031.html
California and Los Angeles County have agreed to purge as many as 1.5 million inactive voter registrations across the state as part of a court settlement finalized Wednesday with Judicial Watch, a conservative activist group.
Judicial Watch sued the county and state voter-registration agencies in Los Angeles federal court, arguing that the state was not complying with a federal law requiring the removal of inactive registrations that remain after two general elections, or two to four years.
Inactive voter registrations usually occur when voters move to another country or state or pass away but remain on the rolls. The lawsuit alleged that Los Angeles County, with more than 10 million residents, has more voter registrations than it has citizens old enough to register with a registration rate of 112 percent of its adult citizen population.
The lawsuit also uncovered that neither California nor Los Angeles County had been removing inactive voters from the voter registration rolls for the past 20 years, according to Judicial Watch.
The settlement agreement, filed with U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real, requires all of the 1.5 million potentially ineligible registrants to be notified and asked to respond. If there is no response, those names are to be removed as required by the National Voter Registration Act.
SNIP
Prior to the agreement, Judicial Watch estimated that based on comparisons of national census data to voter-roll information, there were 3.5 million more names on various county voter rolls than there were citizens of voting age. The settlement could cut the number in half, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
================
As usual, Rethugs exploit every possible way to prevent Dems from voting.
================
This was first reported on in Jan. 2019 (from what I found in google search). I'm not sure why this article came out today...will follow up if I find more info.
Meanwhile, if you have friends in Los Angeles County, CA who haven't voted lately, please urge them to check up on their voter registration!!!!!!!!!!!!
More_Cowbell
(2,191 posts)I called to tell them I'd registered in another county, but they said there was nothing they could do to take me off the roll. They told me I'd just "fall off" after I missed a few elections. They mailed me election materials, to my new county, for about two years. Crazy.
diva77
(7,652 posts)voter fraud
DURHAM D
(32,611 posts)Nope
I know some states clean up rolls if someone does not vote for two Presidential elections. Makes way more sense than above quote.
diva77
(7,652 posts)behavior, it's highly likely significant numbers of voters who should remain on the rolls will be "accidentally" purged.
Igel
(35,337 posts)But usually if you're purged and go to vote you get a provisional ballot. If you're at the same address or in the same precinct, you voted after you confirm your address; if not, you didn't vote.
Where I live now, if you're removed from the polls you don't get a voter ID card in the mail. If you're going to vote, you usually know you should have one--they arrive months before registration deadline. Easy to make a call or check online to see if you're registered.
eleny
(46,166 posts)It doesn't point to fraud because they aren't voting.
Hopefully the notice from the county will make people mindful of voting and they'll vote in the future if they're still alive and living in the county.
eleny
(46,166 posts)If it's the county then there might not be too many accidental mailings. They need to do this asap to give people lots of time to respond before the next election cycle.
diva77
(7,652 posts)that have occurred in CA
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-dmv-voter-registration-error-20180905-story.html
More than 23,000 Californians were registered to vote incorrectly by state DMV
By John Myers
Sep 05, 2018
Tens of thousands of Californians have been registered to vote incorrectly by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, including some who were assigned the wrong political party preference, officials said Wednesday.
Officials insist the errors were limited to 23,000 of the 1.4 million voter registration files sent to elections offices between late April, when Californias new automated motor voter system went into effect, and early August. Californians who were affected will soon receive notifications in the mail instructing them to check their voter registration status.
Jean Shiomoto, the states DMV director, and Amy Tong, director of the California Department of Technology, described the problem as an administrative processing error in a letter to Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Californias chief elections officer.
SNIP
=======
I think they eventually admitted to the number being much higher than 23,000
wiggs
(7,816 posts)many many voters?
former9thward
(32,066 posts)Send an investigator to 1.5 million homes?
nini
(16,672 posts)I of course went to the wrong side and was surprised to see my deceased father on the rolls still. I told them he died about 12 years earlier. They had me sign some paperwork and identify myself as his daughter etc..
IF that's the kind of stuff they're doing then I see no problem with it. I was always under the impression if you missed 2 presidential elections you were dropped.
diva77
(7,652 posts)the rolls and deprived of the right to vote (Dems being the target of the purges)
nini
(16,672 posts)There's always shit going on and it isi our job to stay on top of it. Yea, I agree.
However, there seems to have been an issue with not purging the rolls for 20 years. Let us not forget republicans are also those who have died and/or left etc..
We must get a drive going to make sure people check their registration status etc.. I check mine before every election and encourage others to do so. We must fight back that way.
Also, I understand that was a right wing site that started this - and I agree with you on their intent. But the state and county fucked up too which is making it things harder for us. We must get to work and never take our foot off the gas.
Igel
(35,337 posts)You mean that all this time I could have still voted there?
I've been assuming when I've made posts about voter purges that somehow I had been removed.
I like that example--112% of the adult population is registered to vote.
At the same time, it makes all the voter-turnout numbers given in terms of percentage of registered voters into complete rubbish.
diva77
(7,652 posts)this into account
LiberalFighter
(51,027 posts)if they moved. Otherwise, if they are still alive and live at the address they should remain.
akraven
(1,975 posts)It seems you can purge even if they did. Best of all luck, LA - I'm not a city person but never disliked yours.
If Judicial Watch is on the move, expect good things, diva77. Also contact SPLC.
diva77
(7,652 posts)you meant by "if Judicial Watch is on the move, expect good things"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Watch a bit of a mixed bag, I guess
akraven
(1,975 posts)I know some attorneys who are members, and what they mostly are is sticklers for the Constitution.
diva77
(7,652 posts)I need to read up more on the legal justification for the voter purges -- but what I do know is that the way voters have been notified in the past has been with small flimsy postcards that look like junk mail which most people ignore, the result being that the recipient of the card fails to re-register and gets turned away or given a provisional (uncounted) ballot. I wish Judicial Watch would weigh in on that problem.
akraven
(1,975 posts)ANY ballot can be challenged - ANY. We always vote on paper and keep a copy. Don't expect JW to weigh in - as you said, they're right-wing oriented. Provisional ballots most anywhere just get tossed - I'm serious.
oasis
(49,400 posts)diva77
(7,652 posts)group, yet I'm a bit thrown by post #18
akraven
(1,975 posts)Group's Tactic on Hillary Clinton: Sue Her Again and Again
By Jonathan Mahler
Oct. 12, 2016
diva77
(7,652 posts)oasis
(49,400 posts)diva77
(7,652 posts)Dem2theMax
(9,653 posts)Both of my parents died in 2012, and I never received any voting materials in their names after they passed away.
And I would know, as I am living in what was their house, and using the same mailbox.
diva77
(7,652 posts)I did all the proper things like notify Social Security, Etc., but I sure didn't tell the State Board of Elections to stop sending them ballots. Somebody figured it out and did the right thing.