Democrats Attack Watchdog for Its Court Victory on Voter Registration List
A federal court on Thursday ordered the “deep blue” State of Maryland to produce voter list data for Montgomery County, the state’s largest county. The court ruling comes in the lawsuit filed two years ago, on July 18, 2017, against Montgomery County as well as the Maryland State Boards of Elections under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Baltimore Division. (Judicial Watch vs. Linda H. Lamone, et al.)
This latest decision follows Judicial Watch attorneys’ successes in suspected fraud infested voters lists in California and Kentucky that should lead to the removal of up to almost two (2 million) inactive voters from voter registration lists.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 mandates that all 50 states take necessary and reasonable actions to clean up voter rolls and to make documents about its voter list maintenance policies and procedures available to any American who wishes to view those records.
If Judicial Watch officials had submitted requests for voter registration data, corresponding to the thousands of Montgomery County voters, the State would have been required to produce each record, pursuant to NVRA.
Instead, Judicial Watch merely submitted a single request for a voter list containing and compiling the same information about the thousands of voters in Montgomery County.
“Although both scenarios seek the same information, defendants believe that the NVRA would require compliance with only one of them. Rejecting Judicial Watch’s request based on semantics would be tantamount to requiring Judicial Watch to make thousands of separate requests. Neither the NVRA, the Court, nor common sense can abide such a purposeless obstruction,” according to a press statement from Judicial Watch.
Judicial Watch began its request for the Maryland voter list data after it was discovered that there were more registered voters in Montgomery County than citizens over the age of 18 who could legally register to vote.
U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander rejected Maryland’s objections to providing the voter list information under Section 8(i) of the National Voter Registration Act:
“If Judicial Watch had submitted requests for voter registration data, corresponding to the thousands of Montgomery County voters, the State would have been required to produce each record, pursuant to Section 8(i). Instead, Judicial Watch merely submitted a single request for a voter list containing and compiling the same information about the thousands of voters in Montgomery County. Although both scenarios seek the same information, defendants believe that the NVRA would require compliance with only one of them. Rejecting Judicial Watch’s request based on semantics would be tantamount to requiring Judicial Watch to make thousands of separate requests. Neither the NVRA, the Court, nor common sense can abide such a purposeless obstruction.”
The dispute over the voter registration list arose from an April 11, 2017, when officials at Judicial Watch sent a letter to Maryland election officials, in which the group explained Montgomery County had an impossibly high registration rate.
“The letter threatened a lawsuit if the problems with Montgomery County’s voter rolls were not fixed. The letter also requested access to Montgomery County voter registration lists in order to evaluate the efficacy of any programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of Maryland’s official eligible voter lists during the past 2 years,” according to Thursday’s press statement from Judicial Watch officials.
That is when the Democrat officials in Maryland, resorted to what appears to be their newest arrow in their quiver: As they did with President Donald Trump, they are attacking and smearing Judicial Watch as being agents of Russia.
“Now that the court has cleared the way for Judicial Watch to obtain the Montgomery voter data, our efforts to force the State of Maryland to comply with the NVRA and clean up its voter rolls may proceed,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, a frequent contributor to One America News Network (OANN), NewsmaxTV, Fox News Channel, and other news outlets.
“After our successful efforts to bring Kentucky, California, Ohio and Indiana into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act, it’s time for Maryland politicians to stop the politics, see the light, get right with the law and clean up the State’s voter rolls. If they don’t, we’ll see them in court again,” Fitton noted.
