The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) says it found 9,766 potentially deceased active voter registrants on Los Angeles County’s voter rolls. The election integrity nonprofit also turned up 1,279 apparent duplicate registrations sitting at the same residential addresses. California, ladies and gentlemen.
PILF filed a formal complaint under the Help America Vote Act, raising serious concerns about how L.A. County maintains its voter lists heading into the midterm elections. Because nothing says “democracy is working great” like thousands of dead people still checked in and ready to vote.
The group’s findings don’t stop there. deceased voters on L.A. voter rolls also turned up 1,340 active registrants with completely fictional dates of birth. Another 704 active registrants have recorded birth dates that would make them at least 110 years old. And 54 U.S. Postal Service locations, you know, actual post offices, are listed as residential addresses by registered voters instead of as mailing addresses.
PILF isn’t calling all of those extra findings separate HAVA violations, but they’re waving the red flag anyway, saying they raise serious concerns about the accuracy of the county’s records. Which is a polite way of saying the whole thing looks like a mess.
J. Christian Adams, president of PILF, put it plainly. “California has a responsibility to maintain accurate voter rolls,” he said. “Election officials should investigate these discrepancies and ensure that voter registration records are accurate.” Hard to argue with that, though California officials will probably find a way.
PILF is pushing for election officials to actually do their jobs and clean up the rolls. Whether California’s officials take that seriously or spend their energy calling the complaint “voter suppression” remains to be seen. One thing is certain: somewhere in L.A. County, a 110-year-old ghost is still registered to vote, and nobody in charge thought that was worth a second look.
