Sangamon Sun

Sangamon and 23 other Illinois counties are violating federal voter registration laws, according to a conservative transparency group that compared Election Assistance Commission data and U.S. Census Bureau data to make its determination.

Judicial Watch sent notice-of-violation letters to 11 states accusing them of not fulfilling their obligations to manage voter registration records under the National Voter Registration and Help America Vote acts. The laws require that states regularly maintain their voter rolls to remove registered voters who are no longer eligible to vote in the state, whether due to death, relocation or conviction of a disqualifying crime. States must also ensure that no non-citizens are registered to vote.

According to the letters, the states have counties in which there are fewer voting-age residents than there are registered voters.

Based on data on registered voters and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, Judicial Watch said Illinois has the second-highest number of counties with such a gap, behind only Kentucky. The group has given Illinois 90 days to show that it has addressed the issue or face a lawsuit.

“Dirty election rolls can mean dirty elections,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “These 11 states face possible Judicial Watch lawsuits unless they follow the law and take reasonable steps to clean up their voting rolls of dead, moved, and non-citizen voters.”