Washington DC – Look Ahead America’s (LAA) initiative to empower and educate volunteers living in nine states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin) on challenging ineligible voters recently concluded.
After sending volunteers their county’s potentially ineligible voters – based on public data from the United States Postal Service, which provides permanent address moves, minus military bases and families – LAA requested that these same volunteers share their successes.
Allegheny County, PA – Successfully challenged a voter using parent’s address.
A volunteer’s parents received a mailing at their address for a man who never lived there; the family has continuously occupied the home since the 1950s, and before them a couple with a different last name. When the volunteer inspected the voter roll, he found that the man has a mailing address in Canada and suspected that he was a UOCAVA [Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act] voter. Although he had cast a mail-in ballot for the 2022 Primary, the volunteer’s parents successfully challenged his ballot in the 2022 General. The volunteer asked: “How many more cases like his are there out there?”
Douglas County, NV – Removed a voter who moved to CA and had died in 2015.
This volunteer’s challenge occurred outside the legal window, however, because he had a copy of the voter’s California death certificate which shows the last four Social Security numbers, the clerk informed the volunteer that this voter’s record will be flagged for any activity and promptly removed after the election. (The voter list remains locked for thirty days after the challenge window by law.) Since the death certificate came from California, which is not an ERIC member, the clerk thinks that this explains why the county missed it.
Gwinnett County, GA – Submitted ~10,000 names with personal knowledge of three.
A volunteer in Gwinnett County, Georgia submitted a challenge of approximately 10,000 voters based on the list provided by LAA. The head of the county elections confirmed receipt and explained that he will submit the challenge to the board of elections. The volunteer reviewed the list for voters on his street and has personal knowledge that three had in fact permanently moved out of state.He remarked, “Keep up the good work, LAA!”
Yorktown County, VA – Became an Election Officer, running for Board of Elections.
The volunteer received training and swore in as Officer of Election in October. She will apply for appointment to an open Board of Election seat for three-year term starting January 2023. She credited LAA’s efforts to empower her.
Miami County, OH – With the help of volunteer friends in Michigan & Washington, the volunteer confirmed that ERIC isn’t flagging double registrations with clerks.
After consulting with a peer in Michigan, the Ohio volunteer found at least ten voters double registered in an active status in both states. The Ohio volunteer then reached out to a Washington State researcher, and of the five movers to Washington from Miami County, they confirmed one registered and remains active in both Washington State and Miami County. The volunteer noted that all three states are ERIC participants, and wrote “The implications of this is mind blowing, if other counties have the same or similar data… [these states have] SERIOUS problems following the rules […] Thank you for your efforts!”
Guilford County, NC – Challenged twenty-four voters registered in other states, educated the Director of Elections on challenge procedures.
The volunteer submitted the voter challenge forms with property deed records and voter registrations in other states to the Director of Elections. The volunteer remarked, “The Director of Elections of Guilford County acted like he had never seen one of these forms before and didn’t seem to know if this type of documentation was enough to remove these voters from the voter roll. He kept referencing the term ‘court order’ as if this Voter Form was going to be reviewed by some type of court/judge. Even though I was able to address just a small number of voters prior to the deadline, I wanted to see it to the end, so it would give me a better understanding of how this works.” This is one example of volunteer education helping officials in the real world.
Barron County, WI – Sent lists to clerks for further review.
The volunteer submitted 365 names on the active voter list to the Barron County clerk and the municipal clerk that had permanently moved, as well as an indefinitely confined list as well. Regardless of the outcome, the volunteer noted that the approach in the challenges mattered: “I’m trying to be quite congenial in our discussions to let them know we are watching things closely without making them defensive, for as we know our 2024 election will be as important as this one and I don’t want to burn any bridges.Thank you very doing this important work.”
St. Lucie County, FL – Contacted voters by phone to get confirmation of ineligibility.
The volunteer called two voters on the list to find out their residency status. The first voter, a Republican, told the volunteer that she changed her license and had thought that it would have taken her off the voter rolls, and the other, an Independent, said that on the back of her change of address she cancelled her voter information. The volunteer will continue working; thus far she has found one more voter, a Democrat, who voted by mail this year but left in 2019 and has no military, student, federal, or overseas exemptions.
Lancaster County, PA – Sent to Board of Elections and raised awareness/flagged.
The volunteer spoke with the Chief Registrar for the Lancaster County Board of Elections. The registrar informed the voter that they were unable to perform any voter list maintenance in the ninety days before an election, but did offer to accept the list of challenges and would attempt to contact the voters if any of them applied for a ballot.
Franklin County, OH – Came away feeling Ohio and Franklin County had cleaned the voter rolls and checked as they did deep dives on double registered voters.
The volunteer sent the Deputy Director of the Franklin County Board of Elections eleven names of people registered in two states requesting absentee ballots. Despite being past the thirty-day window for an official challenge, the Deputy Director assigned a staff attorney to research the findings. After many phone calls, the voters were contacted and corrected. The volunteer wrote in a follow up email, “Ohio cleaned up the rolls. This is some evidence of that vigilance working. Thank you for allowing me to participate in an important activity for a citizen.”
Pinellas County, FL – Three volunteers teamed up and submitted seventy-one cases.
Three LAA volunteers joined up and submitted seventy-one potentially ineligible voters to the clerks, including a voter who moved to New York permanently in 2020, registered to vote there in 2021, and requested a vote by mail ballot. They stated that the county clerk gave them a difficult time and said that it would take four years to remove the voter, even with sufficient evidence that the voter is ineligible to vote in Florida. They have not given up on challenging this voter and are considering taking legal action against the clerk.
Pinal County, AZ – Got the list to the district GOP for “official” submission.
The Pinal County Recorder called the volunteer and stated that she said she was supportive of the effort from LAA and the volunteer. Although the recorder stated that her office can’t accept non-verified outside information, she put the volunteer in touch with the Republican Party chair for the district that the volunteer resides in, and the chairperson agreed to accept the database. Since that is a “trusted source” according to the Recorder’s Office, that was how the challenges made their way through the system.
To volunteer with Look Ahead America, please visit: https://lookaheadamerica.org/volunteer/.
