Under Threat Of Lawsuit, Allegheny Co. Purging 69,000 Inactive Voters From Rolls
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - No one's alleging that dead people are voting in Allegheny County, but at the Board of Elections, there are tens of thousands of registrations for voters who are deceased, moved away or haven't voted in several years that need to be culled from the rolls.
"I would concede that we are behind in culling our rolls. We are in the process of doing so," said Elections Manager Dave Voye.
There are 957,000 registered voters in Allegheny County but the elections concedes that about 140,000 -- more than 15 percent -- are inactive.
This mountain of faulty registrations has now courted the attention of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which has sent Allegheny and three others Pennsylvania counties letters threatening a federal lawsuit if the voter rolls aren't cleaned up within 90 days.
In a statement, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the counties are in violation of the national voter registration act and have created the potential voter fraud.
"Dirty voting rolls can mean dirty elections and Judicial Watch will insist, in court if necessary, that states follow federal law to clean up their voting rolls," he said. "It is common sense that voters who die or move away be removed from the voting rolls."
Said Voye: "We had a special election in the spring. I've been on the election committee for the new voting machines. Some things have been put on the back burner."
It's been a few busy years here at the county elections board but it's now begun the process of culling 69,000 inactive voters this year and the rest after -- keeping it in compliance with the law -- even if the number of inactive voters will remain high through the near future.
Andy Sheehan: Does this raise the possibility of voter fraud?
Voye: If any of these inactive voters show up on election day there is paperwork they need to fill out, swearing that they didn't move and committing themselves to perjury.