Judicial Watch Warns Utah to Provide Access to Voter Registration Lists as Federal Law Requires

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it sent a letter to Lt. Governor Deidre M. Henderson, notifying her that Utah is currently in violation of federal the National Voter Registration Act of 1993’s (NVRA) public disclosure requirements. The notice letter warns of a lawsuit after 90 days if the issues are not resolved.

Judicial Watch explains that the NVRA was intended both to “increase the number of eligible citizens who register” and “to protect the integrity of the electoral process’ and ‘ensure that accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained.” It requires states to maintain “for at least 2 years” and “make available for public inspection” all records concerning the implementation of programs conducted for ensuring the accuracy of voter rolls.

Judicial Watch’s review of Utah voter registration law found it fails to ensure compliance with federal “record maintenance and public disclosure requirements” and limits the public’s ability to conduct reasonable election integrity analysis. “This absence of necessary provisions in Utah’s voter registration law directly contravenes the federal mandate under the NVRA.”

In July 2022, Judicial Watch settled a federal election integrity lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Elections, requiring it to grant access to its centralized statewide list of registered voters. State officials had refused to allow the nonprofit Illinois Conservative Union and three lawfully registered Illinois voters to obtain a copy of the state’s voter registration list, despite their lawful request for those records under federal law.

“In short, Utah law makes it impossible – and even illegal – to use voter registration lists to monitor for fraud and accuracy. This is at odds with federal law and undermines election integrity,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

As several federal courts have recognized, the public records provisions of the National Voter Registration Act were intended to enhance the ability of private groups to monitor whether states are removing ineligible voters from their voter rolls. In April 2020, a federal court in Maryland noted that organizations “such as Judicial Watch” have “the resources and expertise that few individuals can marshal. By excluding these organizations from access to voter registration lists,” the purpose of the federal law is undermined. That court ordered Maryland to produce complete voter registration records requested by Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch is a national leader in voting integrity and voting rights. As part of its work, Judicial Watch assembled a team of highly experienced voting rights attorneys who stopped discriminatory elections in Hawaii, and cleaned up voter rolls in California, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, among other achievements.

In recent years, Judicial Watch has caused the removal four million names from the voter rolls.

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