Judicial Watch Victory: Court-Ordered Consent Decree Requires Kentucky to Clean Up Election Rolls
48 Kentucky County Rolls Had More Registered Voters Than Eligible Citizens
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2018 /
Christian Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch announced today that a federal court judge has issued a consent decree directing the Commonwealth of Kentucky to remove the names of ineligible voters no longer in residence from its official voter registration lists. U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove of the Eastern District of Kentucky, Central Division, signed the
consent decree between Judicial Watch, Kentucky and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The state of Kentucky has consented to clean its voter rolls of ineligible names in accordance with the National Voter Registration Act (
NVRA).
The Kentucky State Board of Elections shall develop and implement a general program of statewide voter list maintenance that makes a reasonable effort to remove from the statewide voter registration list the names of registrants who have become ineligible due to a change in residence in accord with section 8 of the NVRA.
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Kentucky State Board of Elections shall create a Comprehensive Plan and implement and adhere
to its terms.
The decree instructs that the plan is to include:
• Procedures for a general program of list maintenance
• Sources of information used regularly
• Procedures for sending a nonforwardable canvass mailing
• Procedures for using the data that is successfully matched to the statewide voter registration list
• Timing of notices and updates
• List of registrants to whom notices have been sent.
• Procedures for removing from the statewide voter registration list any registrant who is mailed a notice
• A description of databases to be used in list maintenance activities and a plan to consult with relevant database managers, assess the quality of data to be used in list maintenance activities, and develop sound and reliable matching criteria
• Procedures for maintaining and making available for inspection and copying the records concerning implementation of the general program activities
• A detailed description of any role that local election officials may play in list maintenance activities.
• Public outreach
In November 2017, Judicial Watch
sued Kentucky over its failure to take reasonable steps to maintain accurate voter registration lists (
Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Alison Lundergan Grimes et al.(No. 3:17-cv-00094)). In June 2018, with Judicial Watch’s consent, the Justice Department moved to intervene in the lawsuit against Kentucky.
