To the Editor:

It appears that some states cannot be trusted to clean up their voter rolls without being taken to court. Judicial Watch (JW) has taken Kentucky to court recently. There were 250,000 notices sent out for clarification on current addresses. These registrations are probably outdated and will be canceled if voters fail to vote in future elections or do not confirm their current addresses.

Kentucky acknowledges that the state is not in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) that states must conduct a general voter registration list maintenance program that removes ineligible persons. Judicial Watch alleged that 48 counties had more registered voters than citizens over eighteen years of age. The suit noted that Kentucky has an active statewide active registration rate is greater than 100% of the age-eligible citizen population. Democrat Kentucky Secretary of State, A.L. Grimes’ office has been accused of improperly delaying the process of previous mailing through 2018, delaying the final clean up by two years. (I wonder why?)

In June 2018, with Judicial Watch’s agreement, the Justice Department moved to intervene in the lawsuit against Kentucky. The Supreme Court held in Husted Case that the removal of old voter registrations is mandatory under the NVRA, something the Kentucky State Board of Elections had failed to do. JW states that Kentucky is taking action to begin the removal of 250,000 from voters list of registered voters, who do not comply with notices being sent to them for clarification, which will help ensure cleaner elections in Kentucky.

In California up to 1.5 million inactive voters are set to be removed from voter registration rolls in Los Angeles county. All of this the result of a federal lawsuit filed by JW in 2017 to force the clean up of Los Angeles county.

Something that is critical as election integrity can’t be left to a simple honor system. In the freest nation in the world, our democracy depends on fair elections. Every American must be able to trust our election system whether we are electing a mayor or the president of the United States.

When voter fraud is committed the system is no longer fair, everyone’s vote gets diluted, and in some cases, election results are changed. Contrary to claims on the left, voter fraud is a real problem. As the Supreme Court noted when it upheld Indiana’s voter ID law, flagrant examples of voter fraud have been documented through history.

Fraudsters can steal votes and change election results in several ways, including: voting in someone else’s name, registering in multiple locations to vote multiple times in the same election, voting even though they are not eligible (non- citizens), or paying or intimidating people to vote for certain candidates.

Unfortunately, many on the left are attempting to make election fraud easier by fighting laws that require ID to vote. They are pushing to get jailed felons and non-citizens to vote. They have sued states who have tried to purge their voter rolls of people who are registered in multiple states! (There is no question about their goal here.) There is no interest in fairness here, just want to win for power over the American people.

How can we fix the problem? States control much of the electoral process, they must pass laws requiring government issued ID to vote. That ensures people aren’t stealing others’ identities and their right to vote. States should join voter cross-check programs to identify voters registered in multiple places. The Heritage Foundation states that one cross-check program has found hundreds of thousands of potential duplicate registrations across 30 states as well as evidence of illegal double voting. Ballot harvesting (which involves someone picking up your ballot to cast your vote) is another problem. These ballots can be changed to suit the “harvester.” It has been proven the “harvesters” also pick up donations that go under the radar and therefore is not recorded as a political donation. Ballot harvesting flipped two seats in California in 2018 from red to blue after the election had been declared a win for Republicans. Ballot harvesting needs to be declared illegal. If a person cannot appear at the voting poll then they should be required to mail in the ballot, thereby eliminating potential voter fraud.

These corrections to our system of voting need to be made to safeguard the electoral process and ensure that every voter’s right to cast a ballot is protected. If the corrections are not made, I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s quote: “Elections belong to the people. It is their decision. If they decide to turn their backs on the fire and burn their behinds, then they have to sit on their blisters.” (Are you listening law makers? :) Research from AMAC, Judicial Watch, Heritage Foundation.

Stella Adcock

Wartrace