BREAKING: Judicial Watch announced today that a federal court judge has issued a consent decree directing Kentucky to clean up its voter rolls & remove the names of ineligible voters no longer in residence from its official voter registration lists. (1/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
U.S. District Judge Van Tatenhove of Eastern District of Kentucky’s Central Division signed a consent decree between JW, Kentucky, & DOJ. Kentucky consented to clean voter rolls of ineligible names in accordance w/ National Voter Registration Act. (2/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
In November 2017, Judicial Watch sued Kentucky over its failure to take reasonable steps to maintain accurate voter registration. In June 2018 (with Judicial Watch’s consent) the Justice Department moved to intervene in the lawsuit against Kentucky. (3/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
JW’s lawsuit argued 48 Kentucky counties had more registered voters than citizens over the age of 18. The suit noted Kentucky was one of three states where the statewide active registration rate is over 100% of the age-eligible citizen population. (4/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
JW argued that Kentucky’s inflated voter rolls indicated it was not complying w/ federal laws requiring it to cancel registrations of citizens who died or moved. Kentucky also failed to divulge registration-related docs as required by federal law. (5/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
In April 2017, JW sent notice-of-violation letters threatening to sue Kentucky & ten other state/local jurisdictions for having more registered voters than citizens of voting age, as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. (6/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
Judicial Watch filed its lawsuit against the state of Kentucky later on in 2017. And then in 2018, the Justice Department itself also contacted Kentucky regarding its failure to comply with the NVRA’s Section 8’s list maintenance requirements. (7/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
The Kentucky win is the first statewide consent decree ever issued in a Section 8 lawsuit started by private litigants. JW previously filed successful NVRA lawsuits against Ohio & Indiana, causing them to voluntarily clean up their voting rolls. (8/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
Judicial Watch also sued Maryland & Montgomery County over their failure to release documents in violation of the NVRA, as well as California & Los Angeles County for their failures to clean up their voter rolls. Those lawsuits are still ongoing. (9/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
JW President @TomFitton: This consent decree is a win for voters of Kentucky & America who want clean elections. Dirty voter rolls can mean dirty elections, so JW is pleased our lawsuit succeeded in requiring Kentucky to agree to clean its rolls. (10/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
JW President @TomFitton: It is good to see that the Justice Department – after years of inaction – has finally returned to enforcing the federal laws requiring states to take reasonable steps to maintain the accuracy of their voting rolls. (11/11)
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
jwatch.us/mdwFT6
