When it comes to elections, Americans want and expect them to be fair and honest. They don’t like voter fraud, and they want common-sense measures preventing it from ever happening. Unfortunately, there is an election integrity crisis in our country, and many Americans know elections rules are bent and broken. Too many states have different election laws and procedures that conflict with existing law, while others simply ignore existing election laws or just don’t know enough about them. This dangerous combination can cause Americans to feel disenfranchised and lose confidence in our elections. The battle for election integrity is ongoing, and Judicial Watch is on the front lines doing everything it can to ensure our elections are fair and honest.

Part of our work involves getting states to clean up their voter rolls in compliance with a law called the National Voter Registration Act, or the NVRA. This law contains provisions requiring states to clean and update their voter rolls by removing people who have passed away or simply moved to another state. Unfortunately, many states haven’t cleaned up their voter rolls in years, and the federal government hardly enforces the NVRA at all, and as a result, dirty voter rolls increase the likelihood of fraud in elections. If a mail-in ballot is sent to a voter who no longer lives at their address or died, and if their voter registration information isn’t updated, anyone living there could simply submit the ballot using the prior resident’s identity.

The potential for voter fraud exists, and that’s where Judicial Watch comes in. Our team of investigators and attorneys are hard at work regularly reviewing voter roll data from across the country. We send notice letters and even file lawsuits against states to make sure voter rolls are cleaned up as the law requires, because Americans know dirty voting rolls can mean dirty elections. Over the past two years, Judicial Watch’s litigation resulted in four million ineligible names being removed from the voter rolls. In a historic victory for election integrity, a lawsuit we filed against the state of California resulted in the removal of 1.2 million ineligible names from voter rolls.

Now, California is at less risk for voter fraud. Judicial Watch also settled a lawsuit against New York City after it removed over 566,000 ineligible names from the voter rolls, and it promised to take reasonable steps going forward to clean its voter registration lists. In North Carolina, our litigation resulted in the removal of over 430,000 inactive registrations from its voter rolls. And in Pennsylvania, Judicial Watch forced the removal of nearly 180,000 ineligible registrations from the state’s voter rolls. It isn’t easy cleaning dirty voter rolls. It takes a lot of time and effort.

But Judicial Watch is happy to do the work the government does not want to do. States can try to stonewall us, but our team of lawyers and investigators are prepared to fight these legal battles in court. While some states don’t update their voter rolls, others allow votes to be received and counted after Election Day, in violation of existing election law. Congress recently reaffirmed a single national election day when it passed the Electoral Count Reform Act. Federal law says the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year is Election Day for federal elections.

There is just not supposed to be an election week or even an election month. Extending the counting of ballots runs counter to federal law and invites fraud and undermines voter confidence. Right now, Judicial Watch is suing Illinois and Mississippi for allowing ballots, including mail-in ballots that may not even be postmarked, to be received and counted days and weeks after Election Day if the ballots are dated on or before Election Day. As you can see, Judicial Watch is hard at work, ensuring our elections are fair and honest. And you can be assured we are ready to do the heavy lifting to make sure they stay that way, because no one is above the law.

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