Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group, and True the Vote, a tea party-backed group that trains poll watchers, filed a lawsuit against Indiana June 11, alleging that the state violated federal law by failing to maintain an accurate voter registration list and to provide records of those efforts.
“Indiana’s election officials are shirking their responsibility to maintain clean voter registration lists,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a statement. “This is our first lawsuit. We plan to sue other states who failed to take reasonable steps to remove dead and ineligible voters from the rolls.”
Indiana elections officials, including Secretary of State Connie Lawson, were traveling and couldn’t be reached for comment June 11, communications director Valerie Kroeger said.
Catherine Engelbrecht, president of True the Vote, said in a statement that the lawsuit was about “restoring integrity” to American elections.
States such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, California and several others can expect lawsuits as well, Fitton told News21. This is Judicial Watch’s second voter issues-related lawsuit in two weeks.
Judicial Watch has been working with True the Vote and the Election Law Center since at least February, when the three announced the 2012 Election Integrity Project.
That effort was to “pressure states and localities, through Judicial Watch lawsuits if necessary, to clean up voter registration rolls pursuant to Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act.” The group claimed that voter rolls in nearly a dozen states contained ineligible voters. Judicial Watch sent letters to election officials in Indiana and Ohio, warning of lawsuits.
By AJ Vicens and Tasha Khan, News21