EPEC NEWS

From the EPEC Team Newsletter: Yes, Virginia, we have noncitizens on voter rolls. And yes, noncitizens were voting for years before they removed themselves from Virginia’s voter rolls, according to Dept. of Election data and EPEC Team analysis.

That’s an ongoing problem. But that’s not all.

Localities and counties still show out-of-staters in “active” status on their voter rolls. That’s according to citizen groups who have been checking the accuracy of the rolls with National Change of Address (NCOA) databases — and other address databases (as part of their voter participation activities).

The rolls also still show deceased voters (listed in “active” status), which citizen groups have reportedly pointed out for months.

EPEC Team analysts, using basic filtering checks on voter rolls, have found many voters who are older than 117, many of which are listed in “active” status.

After citizen groups reportedly asked registrars to check, the Dept. of Elections issued an “advisory” on July 23rd that appears to repeat the basics of voter roll maintenance –- while appearing to ignore questions about ongoing errors in the voter lists.

The advisory states:

While ELECT employs diverse sources of information in the list maintenance process to ensure the most accurate and up-to-date voter rolls, considerations must be made for state and federal laws that govern the processes related to the removal of voters.

It is imperative that information utilized for the cancellation of a voter’s registration come from sources authorized by the Code of Virginia and follow the processes as outlined in Virginia Code and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

Pursuant to 52 U.S.C. §20507(b) of the NVRA, a list maintenance program must be “uniform, nondiscriminatory, and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 1973 et seq.) [now 52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.].” Additionally, §24.2-103 of the Code of Virginia requires the State Board of Elections, through ELECT, to “obtain uniformity in [the] practices and proceedings” of the work of county and city electoral boards and general registrars.

Therefore, the NVRA only permits cancellation when a voter does not respond to these notices over the course of two federal general election cycles.

All well and good on process. But it’s the results of those efforts that are in question.

For example, the potential for duplicate registrations appears to be increasing, rather than decreasing, according to EPEC’s analysis.

In a forthcoming report, EPEC Team analysts have identified over 10,000 registrations in Prince William County alone that appear to be assigned to voters in another locality beyond PWC.

EPEC Team has also identified close to 50,000 voting records across the Commonwealth that appear to be duplicate registrations.

The ELECT advisory does not appear to cover or address how these errors are being addressed, such as merging duplicate records.

According to voter list records, one voter in Prince William County appeared to vote twice, barely 15 minutes apart, and by mail, thanks to a tiny variation in their registration. The advisory does not address these questions of process.

The problems go beyond the biggest concern, which is the continued enrollment of noncitizens on the voting rolls via DMV registrations that lump in noncitizens who receive driver’s licenses.

Other states appear to be more proactive about identifying ineligible registrations. For example, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced he was directing local elections officials to remove nearly 500 foreign national registrations from Ohio’s voter rolls, as M.D. Kittle in The Federalist reported.

The suspected illegal registrations were detected as part of a statewide audit of Ohio’s voter registration database.

According to Dept. of Elections data, 22% of noncitizens who voluntarily removed themselves from voter rolls had voted.

And we know that voter roll maintenance is an ongoing and often complex task, which is why Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act requires states to “implement procedures to maintain accurate and current voter registration lists.”

The accuracy of an election comes down to the accuracy of voter rolls. A recent poll from Rassmussen Reports/Heartland Institute shows that 62% of likely voters are concerned about cheating in the 2024 election, largely due to outdated voter rolls being manipulated or misused for ineligible absentee balloting.

Voting participation groups want nothing more than accurate voter rolls. The NVRA is clear about that mandate: electoral boards and registrars are to maintain accurate voting rolls, and deploy programs to do so in a uniform manner that is nondiscriminatory.

Given the recent findings and ongoing checks of voter rolls, it is fair to raise questions about whether the programs are, in fact, uniform and whether their filters are catching the duplicates.

EPEC Team is committed to updating readers and supporters about our mission promoting voter participation through transparency and trusted results — especially in these waning days before early voting begins in Virginia for the 2024 Presidential election. We owe our readers many more updates after a pause in July.

More to follow in our next edition of EPEC Team Voter News. For now, that’s a wrap.