By Kira Davis
The people have won another small but important battle in the fight for election integrity.
The state of Pennsylvania has agreed to purge 21,000 dead voters from their registration rolls before the next general elections. The concession comes as the result of a lawsuit launched by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF). The suit alleged Pennsylvania had failed to comply with its own “motor voter” laws that require the state to discard ballots from deceased voters.
It seems unthinkable that it would take a lawsuit for a state to stop accepting votes from dead voters, but here we are.
According to the Daily Signal, the PILF provided the names of the 21,000 dead voters as they demanded the state be held to account for their own voting laws.The foundation alleged that in an October analysis it found at least 21,000 apparently deceased citizens on the state’s voter rolls, according to the complaint.
“This case is about ensuring that those deceased registrants are not receiving ballots,” said J. Christian Adams, Public Interest Legal Foundation president and general counsel, according to the press release. “This case isn’t complicated. For nearly a year, we’ve been offering specific data on deceased registrants to Pennsylvania officials for proper handling ahead of what was expected to be a tight outcome on Election Day.”
“When you push mail voting, your voter list maintenance mistakes made years ago will come back to haunt in the form of unnecessary recipients and nagging questions about unreturned or outstanding ballots,” he continued.
The lawsuit further alleged that 92% of the apparently deceased individuals identified have been dead since October 2019, according to the press release. More than 200 of the individuals identified voted in 2016 and 2018, after federally listed dates of death, the lawsuit alleged.The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. PILF’s president says the victory marks an important turning point in the fight for election integrity.
“This marks an important victory for the integrity of elections in Pennsylvania,” Public Interest Legal Foundation President J. Christian Adams said. “The commonwealth’s failure to remove deceased registrants created a vast opportunity for voter fraud and abuse. It is important to not have dead voters active on the rolls for five, 10, or even 20 years. This settlement fixes that.”
Over 9,000 of the names provided had been dead for at least five years or more.