Maryland has found itself in the crosshairs of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, which has thereatened to sue the state if a better effort isn’t made to clean up its voter rolls. Earlier this month, the group sent a letter to the Maryland State Board of Elections to complain that there are more registered voters in Montgomery County than there are voting-age residents. Judicial Watch argues the overage demonstrates that there is “strong circumstantial evidence” that non-citizens may be registered to vote in heavily-Democratic Montgomery County, which is also Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction.
In a statement released by the organization on April 11, Judicial Watch announced it had sent notice of violation letters to 11 states that have counties where the number of registered voters exceeds the number of voting age residents as per recent U.S. Census Bureau counts. Along with Maryland, the other states Judicial Watch has threatened to sue are Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, New York, Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
While states are required by the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act to keep their voter rolls reasonably well up to date, it makes for good press for Judicial Watch to be able to announce it’s threatening to sue over alleged violations, which compels states to seek outside help to maintain their voter registration lists — and helps keep alive the boogeyman of voter fraud among voters. In 2012, Judicial Watch forced Ohio into a settlement that required that state to utilize former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck program to help it clean out the state’s voter rolls. But that system, which is being used in about 30 states, has a history of being highly unreliable — the program asks participating states to send 13 data items to be cross-checked, but “duplicate” entries can be generated if merely a first and last name and date of birth match.
Full Article: Purging voter rolls doesn’t weed out fraud — it weeds out voters | Editorials | fredericknewspost.com.