A federal lawsuit settlement announced April 29 will require Oregon election officials to review and remove approximately 800,000 voter registrations identified as outdated or ineligible, legal organization Judicial Watch announced. The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed in October 2024 alleging Oregon violated Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by failing to conduct required maintenance of its voter rolls across 29 of 36 counties.
Under the settlement, Oregon will provide Judicial Watch with regular county-level data on voter registrations, removals, inactive voter counts, and responses to NVRA compliance surveys. The state voter registration list will be provided to Judicial Watch at no cost and annual reports on inactive registrations and voters eligible for removal are required. A federal court retains jurisdiction to enforce the agreement for more than five years. Oregon Secretary of State spokesperson Tess Seger said all data to be provided is public record. “Oregon is taking the necessary steps to maintain clean, accurate voter rolls in compliance with federal law,” Seger said.
Oregon had already identified approximately 800,000 inactive registrations in January, when Secretary of State Tobias Read announced a voter roll maintenance restart in response to the lawsuit. Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said the settlement “caused Oregon to finally cleanup 800,000 outdated voter names.” “Dirty voter rolls can mean dirty elections,” Fitton said. Colorado previously removed 372,000 names from its voter rolls under a separate Judicial Watch lawsuit and settlement. Judicial Watch’s legal actions have produced removals totaling more than six million voter registrations nationwide, including 735,000 in Kentucky, 918,000 in New York City, and 1.2 million in Los Angeles.
The settlement was announced the same day the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Sources: Judicial Watch press release (T1); Statesman Journal; Central Oregon Daily.
—
YOAST SEO FIELDS
Focus Keyword:
Meta Description: (158 characters)
Slug:
—
Support Independent Local Journalism — High Country Advocate was created as a real alternative to regional media that too often silences dissenting voices while taking sides in the political struggle. Producing in-depth, unflinching reporting like this series and others is expensive: servers, editing, research time, and legal review all add up quickly. If these articles have informed you or given you new perspective, please consider supporting HCA with a paid subscription — every subscriber helps keep this reporting strong and independent. 